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Personal information |
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Full name |
William Henderson |
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Date of birth |
24 January 1944 (age 72) |
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Place of birth |
Baillieston, Scotland |
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Height |
5 ft 4 in (1.63 m) |
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Playing position |
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Senior career* |
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Years |
Team |
Apps |
(Gls) |
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1960–1972 |
478 |
(36) |
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1972 |
3 |
(0) |
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1972–1974 |
48 |
(5) |
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1973 |
7 |
(0) |
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1974–1976 |
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1976–1977 |
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1977–1978 |
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1978–1979 |
2 |
(0) |
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Total |
538 |
(41) |
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National team |
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1962–1971 |
29 |
(5) |
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1962–1968 |
6 |
(2) |
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* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. |
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William “Willie” Henderson (born 24 January 1944, in Baillieston, Glasgow) is a retired Scottish football player. He played most of his career for Rangers, and spent the latter part of his career with Sheffield Wednesday, in Hong Kong with Hong Kong Rangers and with Airdrieonians. He was a prolific winger. He also featured at international level for Scotland.
Henderson made his career debut in 1960 at the age of 16. He was a very pacy right-winger and as he was only 5 feet 4 inches tall he became known as Wee Willie.
During his time with Rangers he won two Scottish league championships, the Scottish Cup four times and the League Cup twice. He was also part of the Rangers team that got to the finals of the 1960–61 and 1966–67 Cup Winners Cup competitions, and was part of the Rangers campaign that eventually brought home the trophy in the 1971/72 season. He was not involved in Rangers’ 3–2 final victory over FC Dinamo Moscow in Barcelona in May 1972, however, as he had left Rangers just prior, having fallen out with the then manager, Willie Waddell. Henderson later admitted that missing that game was one of the worst moments of his career. Henderson signed for Sheffield Wednesday for the 1972–73 season and made his debut on 12 August 1972 in a 3–0 victory over Fulham. Henderson was a great favourite with the Wednesday fans in the two seasons that he was there even though the club had little success. He made 50 appearances for Wednesday with six as substitute, scoring five goals in his two seasons there. His last appearance for the club was on 27 April 1974, the last match of the 1973–74 season against Bolton Wanderers, a match Wednesday had to win to avoid relegation to Division Three. They won the match 1–0. Henderson left Wednesday at the end of that season and went to play for Hong Kong Rangers. In November 1976, he moved to Caroline Hill.[2] He spent three years in the colony and captained the Hong Kong League XI (a team made up of foreign professionals plying their trade in Hong Kong) before returning to Scotland for a final season with Airdrieonians.