Birmingham born football speaker and former English football player Gary Shaw was a popular part of the Aston Villa team who, in the early 1980’s, achieved both the First Division championship and the European Cup.
A West-Midlands boy born and bred it was almost inevitable that Gary would become a football speaker and player for the Birmingham based club; growing up in Kingshurst, Gary’s youth was spent kicking a ball around in the area’s local grass land, known as the “island”. Gary eventually embarked on his professional career in 1978 when he joined Aston Villa, where he would stay for the next ten years. Thanks to his long-standing association with the club, and the continued local pride held for him in and around Birmingham, Gary Shaw is often called upon to appear as a sports speaker at local Birmingham based events or at Aston Villa’s after dinner speaker functions.
During his time with Aston Villa in the 1980s, Shaw's goals helped Villa win the First Division championship in 1980–81 culminating in Shaw being named in the PFA Team of the Year and the European Cup the following year - the only Birmingham-born player in the team.
Shaw left Aston Villa in 1988, following a knee injury that effectively ended his professional career, though he continued to work as a football speaker and striker for a number of teams around the world, including the Copenhagen based Kjøbenhavns, the Austrian Klagenfurt and the Hong Kong-based Ernest Borel FC, he was unable to match the heights gained during his time at Villa.
Alongside his domestic career Gary Shaw also spent time as part of the England Under 21’s National team, where he gained seven caps; he was voted PFA Young Player of the year in 1981 and made it into the initial pick for the World Cup team in 1982, Shaw was awarded the Bravo Award the following year, as the best under-23 player in European Competitions. As a result of these fruitful experiences Gary often finds himself called upon to appear as a football speaker for youth teams and at educational sporting events.
Gary Shaw retired from professional football in 1992 but has remained an active sports speaker for the last twenty-five years. His experience as a global sports personality as well as his time spent at one of Britain’s most popular clubs mark him as an unusual and proficient player with a vast selection of stories and anecdotes to share with his audiences a football speaker at any event.
An incredibly motivational and inspirational figure who had to deal with a devastating injury that ultimately ended his ability to perform at an incredible level, Shaw eloquently and passionately speaks of his trials and tribulations with this process, the repercussions and his ability to get up and play again. Shaw’s career is one in which he achieved so much but also left everyone wondering just what could have been. A truly fascinating football speaker for your event.
