Scot 100: James Hunter picks his top 10 Scottish footballers
The Away End are searching for Scottish football's greatest 100 - the men who have lit up our leagues since a heavy leather ball was first kicked in anger.
The hunt continues until the end of March when we'll then begin counting down to first place. You can vote for your choices here, and below James Hunter picks his top ten.
1. Jimmy ‘Jinky’ Johnstone – Part of the Lisbon Lions and quite possibly the most skilful player Scotland has ever produced. Remembered for his incredible skill he made over 500 appearances for Celtic in a time when they ruled Scotland and became the first British and only Scottish side to have ever won the European Cup.
2. Henrik Larsson – The King of Kings, Henrik Larsson’s Celtic career didn’t get off to the greatest of starts when, on his debut, he played a poor pass that was intercepted by Chic Charnley who smashed in the winner for Hibernian. He overcame this to become a Celtic legend by scoring 222 goals in 359 appearances, winning multiple league titles and cups with Scotland and playing a prolific role in Celtic’s ‘Road to Seville’ UEFA Cup campaign in 2002/2003. After Celtic he went on to Barcelona, Manchester United and returned to the club he started his career with; Helsingborg. He is currently manager at Swedish second division Landskrona BoIS.
3. Billy McNeill – ‘Cesar’ was the captain who led Celtic to European Championship glory in 1967. McNeill’s entire career took place at Celtic. He retired in 1975 after having played 790 times for Celtic and 29 times for Scotland.
4. David Cooper – He tragically died at the age of 39 but he had already cemented himself as a true legend in Scottish football. He was most well-known for his time at Rangers where he made over 500 appearances. He also played for Clydebank and Motherwell and was part of the Motherwell side who won the Scottish Cup in 1991. After his death Motherwell renamed the North Stand the ‘Davie Cooper Stand’. Dutch legend Ruud Gullit said that Davie Cooper was one of the best players he had ever seen.
5. Brian Laudrup – Widely regarded as one of the best players Denmark has ever produced, Brian Laudrup joined Rangers in 1994. He joined Rangers as they were in their nine in a row era and he was awarded two of his four Danish Player of The Year while at Rangers. In an interview he was famously asked by Jim White: “Why are you so good?”
6. Kenny Dalglish – His 22 year career saw him play for just two clubs; Celtic and Liverpool. Nicknamed King Kenny by the Liverpool fans, he won multiple honours for both clubs including three European Cups, eleven league titles and several domestic cups. He remains Scotland’s most capped player with 102 caps and he is joint leading goal scorer with 30 goals.
7. Paul McStay – Paul McStay spent his entire playing career at Celtic, making his debut in 1982 and retiring in 1997. He was capped 76 times for Scotland and captained them and Celtic. The second half of his career coincided with a time when Celtic was in turmoil but he was still voted into the ‘Greatest ever Celtic team.’
8. Willie Miller – Sir Alex Ferguson once described Miller as "the best penalty box defender in the world". He formed a fantastic defensive partnership with Alex McLeish which was key to a lot of Aberdeen’s success back in the 80’s, which included winning every domestic honour and the European Cup winners cup. He made almost 800 appearances for Aberdeen between 1972 until 1990 and was voted the clubs best ever player.
9. David Narey – Remembered by many as the man who scored a “toe poke” for Scotland to give them a 1-0 against Brazil, unfortunately they were beaten 4-1. Narey was the first Dundee United player to be capped by Scotland and he spent 21 years at the Tangerines. Narey won the Scottish League with United and captained them in the 1987 UEFA Cup Final as they were defeated 2-1 by IFK Gothenburg. After leaving Dundee United, he spent a season at Raith Rovers and was man of the match in their famous Scottish League Cup final win against Celtic.
10. Lubomir Moravcik – Signed for just £300,000, Lubo Moravcik went on to become a huge fans favourite with Celtic after being snapped up by fellow countryman and Celtic manager at the time, Dr Jo Vengelos. He struck up a great partnership with Henrik Larsson and scored 29 goals in his 94 league games. He was at Celtic for four years and won two SPL championship, two CIS cups and a Scottish cup.
Add comment
