First Black International Footballer: Andrew Watson Debuts for Scotland

He captained Scotland in his very first match. Andrew Watson, born in British Guiana to a Scottish planter and an enslaved woman, didn't just break football's color barrier in 1881—he led the entire team against England at the Oval, winning 6-1. The Glasgow club Queen's Park had already made him their captain years earlier, but international football? That was different. Watson played three times for Scotland, never losing a single match. Then he vanished from the record books for over a century, his story buried so thoroughly that FIFA didn't acknowledge him as the world's first black international player until 2004. Turns out the most successful captain in early Scottish football history had been erased simply because no one thought to remember him.