West Ham and Celtic goalscorer, tabloid icon, and one of football's most colourful characters
FootballFrank McAvennie arrived at West Ham in 1985 and promptly scored 26 goals in his first top flight season. By the end of it the Hammers had finished third, their highest ever league position, and McAvennie had become the most talked about striker in London.
A Glasgow boy who came south from St Mirren, he was quick, instinctive, and brilliant in the air for a man of modest height. Celtic brought him home in 1987 and he repaid them immediately, scoring twice in the 1988 Scottish Cup Final as part of the club's centenary double. He won full Scotland caps, played at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, and scored goals in two leagues with a smile that never left his face.
His life off the pitch became just as famous. The blond hair, the London nightclubs, the headlines that followed him everywhere. McAvennie was tabloid gold in an era when footballers were genuinely expected to enjoy themselves, and he has never shied away from any of it. His honesty about the highs, the lows, and the years after retirement has made him one of the most compelling speakers on the circuit.
Today McAvennie is a regular at West Ham and Celtic events, a popular after dinner performer, and a man whose stories never come pre packaged. Audiences get the full version, delivered with the Glaswegian humour and the laugh that defined a decade of British football.
Two decades of world class speakers in the basement at EC3. Want to book Frank McAvennie or someone like them? Tell us what you need and we will come back with a plan.
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