Andy Gray

Born in Glasgow and with a mother from the Isle of Lewis, Gray started his professional career as a player with Dundee United, where he scored 36 goals in 62 appearances He also played for Dundee United in the 1974 Scottish Cup Final finishing on the losing side as Celtic ran out 3–0 winners. In October 1975, at the age of 19, he moved south to Aston Villa (newly promoted to the First Division) for £110,000 and was joint winner of England's golden boot with Arsenal's Malcolm Macdonald in 1976–77. His 29 goals helped Villa to a fourth-place finish and victory in the League Cup, and earned him the PFA Young Player of the Year and PFA Players' Player of the Year awards, a double matched by Cristiano Ronaldo in 2009 and Gareth Bale in 2013. At the time he was the youngest player to earn the Players' Player of the Year award, and the first player to win more than one of the official three player of the year awards in the same season. Gray moved to Villa's local rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers on 8 September 1979. His signing was announced to the fans and media prior to Wolves' kick off at home to Crystal Palace, as a pre match celebration at the Molineux for an English record transfer fee of £1.49m. After scoring the winning goal for Wolves in the 1980 League Cup final, he remained with the club through their relegation in 1982 (despite interest from Manchester United) and promotion a year later. Gray moved to Everton in November 1983 for £250,000. He spent two seasons with the…

Gray's Player of the Year accolades in England were surprisingly not enough to convince Scotland manager Ally MacLeod to select him for the 1978 World Cup squad. Gray won 20 caps for Scotland, scoring 7 goals for his country. He also won four caps at Under-23 level and played at schoolboy level. The 20 year-old's full international debut came on 17 December 1975 in a 1–1 draw with Romania. He was not selected for any of Scotland's World Cup squads during his playing days. His final senior appearance for Scotland came on 28 May 1985 in a 1–0 win over Iceland in a 1986 World Cup qualifier. This had been his first cap for two years, despite him scoring twice in his penultimate appearance for the national side on 19 June 1983 in a 2–0 friendly win over Canada, and him excelling on the club level for Everton after his transfer to the Merseyside club later in 1983.

Gray appeared as a pundit on ITV's World Cup coverage in 1978 and during the mid-1980s he appeared fairly regularly on the BBC's coverage, including at the 1986 World Cup. Towards the end of his playing career, he worked as a pundit on STV in Scotland, where he worked alongside Andy Melvin, the producer who would eventually take him to Sky Sports. After leaving coaching, Gray became a football commentator, pundit, and analyst on Sky Sports, serving as a Scottish facet of its Premier League coverage since its inception in 1992, most notably alongside studio anchor Richard Keys and lead match commentators Martin Tyler and Ian Darke. In addition, he reported for Sky from Euro 2004 in Portugal, although Sky did not have broadcast rights for the games. He commentated for BBC Radio 5 Live in the 2002 World Cup and for ESPN in Euro 2008. Gray also provides betting tips for Betfair, and also provided commentary for the EA Sports's FIFA of video games along with John Motson and Des Lynam in FIFA: Road to World Cup 98 (being replaced with Mark Lawrenson in the following game) and Clive Tyldesley and Martin Tyler from FIFA 06 to FIFA 11, until being replaced in FIFA 12 by Sky Sports pundit Alan Smith. In January 2011, Gray was forced to apologise for comments he made about a female assistant referee, Sian Massey, in a Premier League match. Believing that his microphone was switched off, Gray commented to co-host Richard Keys: "Can you believe that? A female linesman. Women don't know…

Gray has been married twice, and has five children by four different women. Gray is a supporter of former clubs Rangers FC and Everton FC.