Manchester United
Scanlon made his way through the Manchester United youth system, winning two FA Youth Cups in 1953 and 1954 before making his first-team debut against Arsenal on 20 November 1954. Scanlon was involved in two league title wins – in 1956 and 1957 – but he failed to make enough appearances to earn a winners' medal on either occasion.
On 5 February 1958, Scanlon started on the left wing in United's European Cup quarter-final second leg away to Red Star Belgrade; for five of the players who started the game, it was to be their last ever match for the club. The next day, on the return journey to Manchester, the team's plane crashed while attempting to take off from Munich airport, in an incident that later became known as the Munich air disaster. The crash claimed the lives of 23 of the 44 passengers on board the plane, so Scanlon was relatively fortunate to escape with just a fractured skull, a broken leg and kidney damage. He made a full recovery and was back in action at the start of the following season, going on to appear in every game that season, scoring 16 goals in the process.
Scanlon was sold to Newcastle United for £18,000 in November 1960, but his time on Tyneside was not a success and he then dropped down to a lower level to play for Lincoln City in February 1962. He was on the move again just over a year later, joining Mansfield Town in April 1963, just in time to participate in the club's celebrations at being promoted to the Third Division. Mansfield narrowly missed out on promotion to the Second Division two years later, finishing third in Division Three, but they dropped to 19th the following season and Scanlon took the opportunity to drop out of league football. He joined Belper Town in 1966, and retired not long afterwards.
Read more about this topic: Albert Scanlon
Famous quotes containing the words manchester and/or united:
“The [nineteenth-century] young men who were Puritans in politics were anti-Puritans in literature. They were willing to die for the independence of Poland or the Manchester Fenians; and they relaxed their tension by voluptuous reading in Swinburne.”
—Rebecca West (1892–1983)
“United Fruit... United Thieves Company... it’s a monopoly ... if you won’t take their prices they let your limes rot on the wharf; it’s a monopoly. You boys are working for a bunch of thieves, but I know it ain’t your fault.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)