HITC Sport’s run-down of Sheffield Wednesday’s greatest ever players continues with Tommy Craig.
It was only last September that the British record fee for a teenager was smashed by Manchester United who, according to Sky, paid £36m to Monaco for Anthony Martial.
Rewind 48 years and it was Sheffield Wednesday breaking that very record, after bringing in Aberdeen’s Tommy Craig for a fee only 360 times smaller, the Scottish FA reports.
Craig was a diminutive midfielder who was famous for his flaming red barnet, possessing a wand of a left foot and his impressive goalscoring record of roughly one in five.
He remained with Wednesday for six years – the first third of which were in the top flight – before being sold onto Newcastle at £10,000 profit, according to the Chronicle, where he would win his one and only cap for Scotland.
Arguably, Craig’s Hillsborough highlight came during a friendly match in February 1972, when he faced a Santos side which contained the three-time World Cup winner Edson Arantes do Nascimento, otherwise known as Pele, in front of 37,000 supporters.
“I told the referee to give me a signal when he was about to blow for time so I could stand beside the great man,” Craig told the Daily Record, as quoted by the Sheffield Star.
“When time up came I grabbed Pelé round the waist until he had parted with the jersey.”
Despite Wednesday’s early 1970s drift towards mediocrity, Craig left a lasting impressing on Owls supporters – not least the plumber turned Coronation Street actor by the same name.
Real name Craig Thompson, Craig played Tommy Harris in the soap between 2002 and 2005.
Sheffield Wednesday career: 1968-1974
Appearances: 214
Goals: 38
Scotland career: 1976
Caps: 1
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