Charlie Nicholas - TheSportsDB.com

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Name
Charlie Nicholas

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Born
1961 (62 years old)

Birth Place

Glasgow, Scotland

Position
Centre-Forward

Status

Ethnicity

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Height
178 cm

Outfitter

Kit

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Agent

Wage Year

Player Cutout

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Sport

Soccer

Team
_Retired Soccer

2nd Team

League
_No League Soccer

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No

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Charles Nicholas (born 30 December 1961) is a Scottish former professional footballer. A striker, Nicholas is best known for his spells at Celtic and Arsenal. He won 20 international caps for Scotland, including playing at the 1986 FIFA World Cup.

Nicholas began his career at Celtic, and by the age of 21 was considered the most exciting emerging talent in British football. With several English clubs keen to sign him, he joined Arsenal in the summer of 1983. He spent over four years there, and scored both their goals in their League Cup Final win over Liverpool in 1987. Nicholas fell out of favour at Highbury later that year, and moved back to Scotland to join Aberdeen. He won two Cup Finals in his time at Pittodrie, before rejoining Celtic in 1990. His second spell at Parkhead was less successful than his first, but he spent five seasons there before moving on to Clyde for one season before retiring from playing.

Since retiring he has worked in the media, most recently on the Sky Sports show Soccer Saturday, until August 2020.

Nicholas was first capped by Scotland at senior level on 30 March 1983, near the end of his first spell at Celtic. He was on the scoresheet in a 2–2 draw with Switzerland at Hampden Park. He was in Scotland's squad for the 1986 World Cup, playing in the group matches against Denmark and Uruguay. He won the last of his 20 senior caps for Scotland on 26 April 1989 in a 2–1 win over Cyprus at Hampden Park. The last of his five goals for Scotland had come on 17 October 1984 in a 3–0 win over Iceland at Hampden Park early in the World Cup qualifying stages.

Nicholas previously worked as a pundit on the Sky Sports News programme Soccer Saturday and Sky Sports' coverage of Scottish football. He is also a part-time newspaper columnist. In April 2010 Nicholas criticised Celtic's majority shareholder Dermot Desmond. He accused Desmond and the board of presiding over the worst Celtic squad he had ever seen. Nicholas criticised Desmond's handling of the club, accusing him of treating the Glasgow club like "a toy", and failing to invest properly in the playing staff.

In January 2014, Nicholas was inducted into the Scottish Football Hall of Fame.