Джордж Рэмзи: Пионер английского футбола и легендарный менеджер «Астон Виллы»

Scottish footballer and manager (1855–1935)

George Burrell Ramsay (4 March 1855 – 7 October 1935) was a Scottish footballer and manager. Ramsay was the secretary and manager of Aston Villa Football Club during the club's 'Golden Age'. As a player he was the first Aston Villa captain to lift a trophy, being instrumental in establishing the club as force in the game. A pioneer of the passing game, which he learned in his native Scotland, Aston Villa became renowned for their short, quick combination passing under his leadership. His trophy haul of six League Championships and six FA Cups established Aston Villa as the most successful club in England. He has been described as the world's first paid football manager. To this day, Ramsay remains one of the most successful managers in the history of English football.

Ramsay was born at Abbotsford Place in the Gorbals district of Glasgow, the second son of William Ramsay, a master ironmonger, who originated from Perthshire and Mary Ann Burrell who was born in Woolwich. After initially working with his father, the Glaswegian arrived in Birmingham 1876 to work as a clerk in a brass foundry.

Prior to joining Aston Villa, Ramsay had played for Glasgow's Oxford F. C. and Rovers F. C. In 1877 he appeared as a guest player for Welsh club Druids, when they played a fixture against Queens Park. Ramsay came to join Aston Villa by chance shortly after arriving in Birmingham. One day in 1876, whilst taking a stroll in Aston Park, the 21 year old Ramsay came across a Villa players' practice match and was asked to make up the numbers. They were amazed by his skills, they had never seen a display of close ball control before. When the game was over, the Villa players surrounded him and invited him to join the club, and very soon he became their captain. Ramsay later described the newly formed club's approach to the game as 'a dash at the man and a big kick at the ball'. Word spread about how fine a player Ramsay was, spectators began turning up to watch the little man nicknamed 'Scotty'. He also took charge of training which saw dramatic improvement that showed in the results, introducing what was known as the "passing game". This had become the main style of play in Scotland whereas in England most teams relied on what was known as the "dribbling game". "It was George Ramsay who first moulded the style of the club's play, and the Aston Villa team have never lost the reputation they gained for short, quick passing under Ramsay's direction". In addition to the introduction of a radical change in playing style, Ramsay, along with John Linsay, discovered the Wellington Road ground at Perry Barr in 1876, which meant the club was able to charge admission for the first time. He was also responsible for the recruitment of Villa legend Archie Hunter, who later recounted the story in his 1890 memoir Triumphs of the Football Field. Aston Villa to me as a club that had come rapidly to the fore and asked me to become a member of it. I hesitated for some time, but at last my friend told me that a "brother Scot," Mr. George Ramsay, was the Villa captain and that decided me. Mr. Ramsay was a Glasgow man and had exerted himself very considerably to bring the Villa team into the front rank. Mr. Ramsay was practically the founder of the Aston Villa Football Club. Villa gradually improved under his guidance,"the influence of Ramsay, then Hunter, led Villa to develop an intricate passing game, a revolutionary move for an English club in the late 1870s. It was a style of play modelled on that which was prevalent in Scotland at the time and which had been pioneered by Queen's Park, the Glasgow side. This type of sophisticated teamwork had rarely been employed in England." Villa were becoming a force to be reckoned with in the Midlands, which culminated in the club winning their first trophy, The Birmingham Senior Cup, in 1880, with Ramsay as captain. The club would go on to lift the trophy 9 times in the next 12 seasons. William McGregor later recalled: "I can see now the little dapper, well built laddie, with a black and red striped cap, red and blue hooped jersey, and the same coloured stockings, getting hold of the ball on the extreme wing, well within his own territory, and going off like streaked lightning, wiggling, waggling past opponents one after another and finally landing the ball between the sticks." Ramsay retired from playing at the age of just 27 due to an injury sustained during an early experimental floodlit match against Nottingham Forest at Villa's Perry Bar ground in 1882. He handed the captaincy to fellow Scotsman, Archie Hunter, but remained involved with the club serving on the committee.

He married Fanny Elizabeth Warwick, an Aston girl, in 1893. They had two sons and one daughter. Ramsay divorced his wife on the grounds of her adultery in 1915. In later life, Ramsay was a keen player of crown green bowls and won several competitions. He often played at the Welsh spa town of Llandrindod Wells, where he spent much of his retirement.