Andy Gray

Andrew Mullen Gray (born 30 November 1955) is a Scottish football broadcaster and former player.

He played as a forward for Dundee United, Aston Villa, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Everton, Aston Villa, Notts County (on loan), West Bromwich Albion, Rangers and Cheltenham Town.

He won 20 caps for Scotland.

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 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.

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.

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.

Gray moved to Villa's local rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers on 8th September 1979.

His signing was announced to the fans and media prior to The 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.

Despite starting the decade on a high as league champions in 1981 and European Cup winners in 1982, Villa had now declined to mid table mediocrity and the return of Gray was unable to turn things around as his arrival at Everton had done.

Gray moved to Everton in November 1983 for £250,000.

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.

After retiring as a player, Gray entered coaching as an assistant to Ron Atkinson at Aston Villa before focusing full-time on his television work.

He spent two seasons with the Merseyside club, winning the FA Cup in May 1984.

Gray scored in the final against Watford in controversial fashion by heading the ball out of the Watford's goalkeeper's hands.

A year later, he won the League Championship and European Cup Winners' Cup, also scoring in the final of the latter.

He also reached another FA Cup final, but this time he was on the losing side as Everton were defeated by Manchester United.

Then came the arrival of England striker Gary Lineker from Leicester City in the 1985 close season.

Despite angry petitions from Everton fans wanting to keep Gray at Goodison Park, he left the club on 10 July 1985, returning to Aston Villa in a £150,000 deal.

He scored five goals from 35 league games in 1985–86 as Villa narrowly avoided relegation to the Second Division, and the following season he didn't score in 19 league games as Villa fell into the Second Division.

His final senior appearance for Scotland came on 28 May 1985 in a 1–0 win over Iceland in a 1986 World Cup qualifier.

He began the 1987–88 season still with Villa, but was transferred to their local rivals West Bromwich Albion in September 1987 having not featured in a first team game for Villa that season.

His spell at Albion lasted less than a year, and was uneventful as they narrowly avoided relegation from the Second Division.

In mid-1988, he joined Rangers.

He spent one season at Ibrox, helping them win the Scottish Premier Division title – the first of nine successive titles they would win.

He dropped into non-league football with Football Conference club Cheltenham Town in summer 1989, and scored his first goal for the club in a 2–0 home win over Chorley on 21 October 1989, before retiring in 1990.

Gray was the lead football pundit for Sky Sports (since it began its broadcast of the Premier League in August 1992) and was the channel's co-commentator for nearly 19 years (often working alongside Martin Tyler) until his dismissal in January 2011, following multiple allegations of sexism.

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.

He commentated for BBC Radio 5 Live in the 2002 World Cup and for ESPN in Euro 2008.

In addition, he reported for Sky from Euro 2004 in Portugal, although Sky did not have broadcast rights for the games.

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, along with former Sky Sports anchor Richard Keys, then signed for talkSPORT in February 2011.

They both now work for beIN Sports in Doha, Qatar; since June 2013 they have been the main presenters of Premier League and UEFA Champions League match broadcasts within the Middle East and North Africa region.