Ian St John

Ian St John

Ian St John in 1966
Personal information
Full name	Ian St John
Date of birth	(1938-06-07) 7 June 1938 (age 78)
Place of birth	Motherwell, Lanarkshire, Scotland
Playing position	Centre-forward
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1957–1961	Motherwell	113	(80)
1961–1971	Liverpool	336	(95)
1971	Hellenic	23	(4)
1971–1972	Coventry City	18	(3)
1972	Cape Town City
1972–1973	Tranmere Rovers	9	(1)
National team
1959–1965	Scotland	21	(9)
1959–1961	Scottish League XI	4	(6)
Teams managed
1973–1974	Motherwell
1974–1977	Portsmouth
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.

Ian St John (born 7 June 1938, Motherwell, Lanarkshire, Scotland) is a former Scottish footballer, who played for Scotland 21 times. He later became a manager and pundit. In 2008, he was inducted into the Scottish Football Hall of Fame.

Ian St John began his career at boyhood favourites Motherwell where managed by Bobby Ancell he was part of the conveyor belt of talent that was nicknamed the "Ancell Babes". Among the coaching staff at Fir Park was someone destined to play a significant role in his career, Reuben Bennett. St John's debut was against Dumfries side Queen of the South in an away fixture at Palmerston Park. St John scored one of the fastest hat-tricks in Scottish football history when at Motherwell: two minutes and 30 seconds, against Hibernian in 1959.

On 2 May 1961 he transferred to Liverpool where Bennett was now part of Bill Shankly's 'Boot Room' coaching staff. The fee was more than double the previous highest transfer fee paid by Anfield's board, £37,500. He was brought to the club by manager Bill Shankly, who was preparing for his second season as Liverpool manager with the club still in the Second Division. Many years later, after Shankly's retirement as manager, he described St John's arrival at the club – along with that of Ron Yeats the same summer – as the "turning point" for the club as they began their transformation into one of Europe's top footballing sides.