Aberdeen Football Club is a football team from Scotland, who compete in the Scottish Premier League.

Formed in 1903 from the amalgamation of a number of clubs from Aberdeen they have been one of the top clubs in Scotland. Sir Alex Ferguson was a highly successful manager of the team in the 1980s, guiding them to three league championships, and famously to victory in the 1983 Cup Winners' Cup, defeating Real Madrid in the final.

Aberdeen are the only Scottish team to have won more than one European trophy. They play at Pittodrie, which has a capacity of just under 22,000 and was the first all-seater stadium in the UK.

History

Aberdeen football club are one of Scotland's most successful football teams.

Origins of the club

The current Aberdeen FC was born out of the merger of three city clubs; Aberdeen, Victoria United and Orion. A public meeting on March 20, 1903 was attended by more than 1,600 citizens, and on that date the amalgamation issue was discussed and given the go-ahead. On April 14 that same year the merger was made official and Aberdeen Football Club was born.

The merger allowed Aberdeen (wearing an all-white kit) to seriously entertain thoughts of joining the Scottish football league, but had to settle with spending its inaugural season in the Northern League having narrowly failed to gain admission to the First Division.

League football arrived in 1904-05 as Aberdeen were accepted to the Second Division, and immediately changed kit colours to black and gold. Despite finishing 7th in the league, Aberdeen successfully applied to join the First Division for the 1905-06 season and embarked on what was to become an unbroken run of top flight football.

Scottish Dominance

Aberdeen (adopting an all-red kit from the mid-1930s) established themselves as a reasonably strong side in Scottish football throughout the years, but struggled to attain trophy success. That changed in 1947 when the club won its first Scottish Cup with a 2-1 victory over Hibernian. The Scottish League Championship was claimed in 1954-55 as the club emerged as a credible threat to the Old Firm dominance of Scottish football.

In 1967 Aberdeen competed in the United Soccer Association as the Washington Whips.

The arrival of Alex Ferguson in 1978 from St. Mirren brought about a complete change in the club's fortunes, and from 1978 to 1986 the Dons won three league championships, four Scottish Cups, one League Cup, the European Cup Winner's Cup and the European Super Cup. During those years, the Dons and Dundee United broke the traditional dominance of the Old Firm in Scotland, and the two clubs became known as the New Firm .

The departure of Ferguson to Manchester United in November of 1986 left the Dons board with the arduous task of replacing the irreplaceable, and they inexplicably opted for little-known coach Ian Porterfield . Porterfield's reign was nothing short of disastrous and ended with his resignation in May 1988.

90 minutes from the title

Alex Smith & Jocky Scott formed a co-managership of the club to replace Porterfield, and achieved a great Cup double in 1989-90 as they started to repair the damage done by the previous manager. In the 1990-91 season a run of twelve victories in thirteen games left Aberdeen sitting top of the table on goal difference ahead of Rangers, going into the final match of the season at Ibrox Park. A change of tactics (which eventually led to Jocky Scott leaving the club) and a Mark Hateley double gave the Championship to Rangers, and allowed them to continue on their Championship run that saw them eventually lift nine consecutive titles.

Into decline

Alex Smith floundered as manager in his own right, and was eventually sacked in 1992. Club legend Willie Miller failed to emulate his stunning playing success in the managerial hotseat, and since then a variety of managers have come and gone.

Since the latter half of the 1990s the club has declined somewhat, finding it harder to compete against the dominance of Rangers and Celtic. The team has even come close to being relegated out of the Premier on a few occasions, on one occasion being saved from a relegation playoff only because of the fact that the winner of the Division One was unable to fulfil ground safety requirements and was therefore barred from promotion. Their current manager Jimmy Calderwood is hoping to take the dons back to the glory years.

Famous Players

• Alex Jackson
• Charlie Cooke
• Martin Buchan
• Joe Harper
• Steve Archibald
• Charlie Nicholas
• Willie Miller
• Jim Leighton
• Alex McLeish
• Gordon Strachan

Managers

• 1903-1924 Jimmy Philip
• 1924-1937 Patrick Travers
• 1938-1955 Dave Halliday
• 1955-1959 Dave Shaw
• 1959-1965 Tommy Pearson
• 1965-1971 Eddie Turnbull
• 1971-1975 Jimmy Bonthrone
• 1975-1977 Ally Macleod
• 1977-1978 Billy McNeill
• 1978-1986 Alex Ferguson
• 1986-1988 Ian Porterfield
• 1988-1992 Alex Smith & Jocky Scott
• 1992-1995 Willie Miller
• 1995-1997 Roy Aitken
• 1997-1998 Alex Miller
• 1998-1999 Paul Hegarty
• 1999-2002 Ebbe Skovdahl
• 2002-2004 Steve Paterson
• 2004-Present Jimmy Calderwood

Honours

• European Cup Winners' Cup :- 1982-83
• European Super Cup :- 1983-84
• Scottish League Titles (4):- 1954-55; 1979-80; 1983-84; 1984-85
• Scottish Cup Winners (7) :- 1946-47; 1969-70; 1981-82; 1982-83; 1983-84;
  1985-86; 1989-90
• Scottish League Cup Winners (5) :- 1955-56; 1976-77; 1985-86; 1989-90; 1995-96
• Drybrough Cup Winners (2) :- 1971-72; 1980-81

Notable events

• First match: Aberdeen 1 - 1 Stenhousemuir (Pittodrie; August 15 1903)
• Largest win: Aberdeen 13 - 0 Peterhead (Pittodrie, Scottish Cup 3rd Round; February 10 1923)
• Worst defeat: Celtic 8 - 0 Aberdeen (Celtic Park, Scottish First Division; January 30 1965)