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Alex McLeish
Personal information
Full name	Alexander McLeish
Date of birth	January 21, 1959 (age 48)
Place of birth	Glasgow, Scotland
Playing position	Central Defender (retired)
Club information
Current club	Scotland (manager)
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1978–1994 1994–1995	Aberdeen Motherwell	493 (25) 003 0(0)
National team
1980–1993	Scotland	077 0(0)
Teams managed
1994–1998 1998–2001 2001–2006 2007–present	Motherwell Hibernian Rangers Scotland
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Alexander McLeish (born January 21, 1959 in Barrhead, Scotland) nicknamed "Big Eck", is a former professional footballer and is currently manager of the Scotland national team. He became a club legend during his playing career at Aberdeen during their 1980s glory years. He enjoyed management spells at Motherwell and Hibernian, the latter with some success, and then made a dream move to boyhood heroes Rangers, where he guided the team to two championships and five cup wins.

Contents 1 Playing career 1.1 Aberdeen years 1.2 Winners medals as Aberdeen player 1.3 International career 2 Management career 2.1 Motherwell 2.2 Hibernian 2.3 Rangers 2.4 Scotland 3 Managerial honours 3.1 Hibernian F.C. 1998–2001 3.2 Rangers F.C. 2001–2006 4 Managerial stats 5 Notes 6 External links

His playing career saw him join Aberdeen in 1976 where he formed a formidable defensive partnership with Willie Miller. He enjoyed great success at Aberdeen under the management of Sir Alex Ferguson including a UEFA Cup Winners' Cup win over Real Madrid. He also won the Scottish player of the year in 1990. He was captain of Aberdeen after the retirement of Willie Miller.

• European Cup Winners Cup 1982/83
• European Super Cup 1983/84
• Scottish Premier League 1979/80, 1983/84, 1984/85
• Scottish Cup 1981/82, 1982/83, 1983/84, 1985/86, 1989/90
• Scottish League Cup 1985/86, 1989/90

He also went to three World Cups with Scotland in 1982, 1986 and 1990. He is a member of the Scotland Hall of Fame and Scotland's third most capped player, having gained 77 international caps between 1980 and 1993.

After his successful playing career he quickly went into football management with Motherwell in 1994. His first season at Motherwell saw him take the Lanarkshire club to second in the Premier League behind Walter Smith's Rangers. However, he failed to build on this success and the next two season were spent in relegation battles. He resigned as manager to take over at Hibernian in 1998.

McLeish took over a struggling Hibernian side, which was relegated from the Scottish Premier Division in 1998 despite a slight upturn in fortunes under McLeish. He then guided the Edinburgh team back to the Scottish Premier League at the first attempt by winning the First Division championship.

Hibernian consolidated in their first season back in the top division, finishing mid-table and reaching the Scottish Cup semi-final. In the 2000/01 season, Hibs started very strongly. Eventually they had to settle for third place and a Scottish Cup final appearance. This performance attracted the attention of bigger clubs, including West Ham United and Rangers.

McLeish attracted top players such as Russell Latapy and former French international Franck Sauzee to Hibs. He also helped develop young striker Kenny Miller, who would later go on to play for Rangers, Wolves, Celtic and Scotland.

His work at Hibs was noticed, and he was linked with several moves to England, before he was appointed as Rangers manager in December 2001 after outgoing Rangers manager Dick Advocaat recommended McLeish to chairman David Murray.

McLeish was an instant success at Rangers, winning both the Scottish Cup and Scottish League Cup in his first season, but the big prize of the league title was essentially lost before his arrival. His second season saw him go one better when he won the domestic treble, with the help of top players such as Ronald de Boer and Barry Ferguson.

Rangers' worsening financial state saw many of his top players leave in the summer of 2003. Celtic won the league comfortably in season 2003/2004, and Rangers failed to win any trophies. McLeish was consequently put under pressure from fans after his poor signings and a record run of seven consecutive derby losses to Celtic.

The high profile Bosman signings of Jean-Alain Boumsong and Dado Pršo in the close season of 2004-05 gave Rangers renewed hope of regaining the title from Celtic's grasp. McLeish's team won the 2005 league title on a dramatic last day, an outcome that looked highly unlikely after Rangers fell five points behind leaders Celtic with just four games remaining.

After this unexpected success, McLeish and his Rangers team headed into the 2005/06 SPL campaign as favourites to retain the championship. McLeish made a number of signings, despite having little money to spend. These included Julien Rodriguez and Ian Murray. After a reasonable start to the season, including a win over Celtic, Rangers suffered a series of poor results between September and November. This period included a club record of 10 games without a win.

Despite the poor domestic form, McLeish guided Rangers to the last 16 of the UEFA Champions League, where they were defeated on the away goals rule by Villarreal. They became the first Scottish team to progress this far in the European Cup since 1993, and the first Scottish team to progress through a European group stage. In December, chairman David Murray publicly announced his support for McLeish. Rangers then went on a good run of results in December and January.

This run of good results came to a sudden halt when they were defeated 3-0 by Hibernian in the Scottish Cup, prompting protests outside Ibrox against both of McLeish and David Murray. On 9 February 2006, the increasing supporters unrest and protests caused Rangers chairman David Murray to announce that Alex McLeish had had his contract teminated with notice at the end of the season.

It was later announced that he would be succeeded by former Olympique Lyonnais manager Paul Le Guen. McLeish went out on a high when Rangers beat Hearts 2-0 at Ibrox Stadium, in his final match as Rangers manager.

McLeish said after leaving Rangers that he would not manage another Scottish club, because he felt that he had achieved everything in the Scottish game. He was linked in the media with a number of managerial positions in England while he worked as a television pundit for the BBC and Setanta Sports.

McLeish took charge of the Scotland national side on 29 January 2007. His assistants in the job are Roy Aitken and Andy Watson. McLeish's first game in charge of the national team was a Euro qualifier, a 2-1 victory against Georgia on 24 March 2007 at Hampden Park. His second game was an away fixture against Italy on 28 March 2007 which ended in a 2-0 defeat.

• Scottish Football League First Division: 1
  • 1999^[1]

• Scottish Premier League
  • Winners (2): 2003, 2005
  • Runners-Up (2): 2002, 2004
• Scottish Cup
  • Winners (2): 2002, 2003
• Scottish League Cup
  • Winners (3): 2002, 2003, 2005
• UEFA Champions League
  • Qualification for last 32 (1): 2003
  • Qualification for last 16 (1): 2005

Team	From	To	Record
			G	W	L	D	Win %
Motherwell	July 13, 1994	February 10, 1998	156	48	63	45	30.76
Hibernian	February 11, 1998	December 11, 2001	164	77	45	42	46.95
Rangers	December 13, 2001	May 8, 2006	235	155	36	44	65.95
Scotland	January 29, 2007	Present	2	1	1	0	50.00

• Alex McLeish management career stats at Soccerbase

Preceded by Willie Miller	Aberdeen FC captain 1990-1994	Succeeded by Stewart McKimmie
Preceded by Richard Gough	Scottish Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year 1990	Succeeded by Maurice Malpas
Preceded by Tommy McLean	Motherwell F.C. manager 1994-1998	Succeeded by Harri Kampmann
Preceded by Jim Duffy	Hibernian F.C. manager 1998-2001	Succeeded by Franck Sauzee
Preceded by Dick Advocaat	Rangers F.C. manager 2001-2006	Succeeded by Paul Le Guen
Preceded by Walter Smith	Scotland national football team manager 2007-present	Succeeded by Incumbent

	Scotland squad - 1982 FIFA World Cup
1 Rough | 2 McGrain | 3 Gray | 4 Souness | 5 Hansen | 6 Miller | 7 Strachan | 8 Dalglish | 9 Brazil | 10 Wark | 11 Robertson | 12 Wood | 13 McLeish | 14 Narey | 15 Jordan | 16 Hartford | 17 Evans | 18 Archibald | 19 Sturrock | 20 Provan | 21 Burley | 22 Leighton | Coach: Stein

	Scotland squad - 1986 FIFA World Cup
1 Leighton | 2 Gough | 3 Malpas | 4 Souness | 5 McLeish | 6 Miller | 7 Strachan | 8 Aitken | 9 Bannon | 10 Bett | 11 McStay | 12 Goram | 13 Nicol | 14 Narey | 15 Albiston | 16 McAvennie | 17 Archibald | 18 Sharp | 19 Nicholas | 20 Sturrock | 21 Cooper | 22 Rough | Coach: Ferguson

	Scotland squad - 1990 FIFA World Cup
1 Leighton | 2 McLeish | 3 Aitken | 4 Gough | 5 McStay | 6 Malpas | 7 Johnston | 8 Bett | 9 McCoist | 10 MacLeod | 11 Gillespie | 12 Goram | 13 Durie | 14 McInally | 15 Levein | 16 McCall | 17 McKimmie | 18 Collins | 19 McPherson | 20 McAllister | 21 Fleck | 22 Gunn | Coach: Roxburgh