Alexander (Alex) McLeish


1959 -

Football player and manager. Born in Glasgow, McLeish began his football career with Aberdeen (1976), where he formed a defensive partnership with Willie Miller (b. 1955). Under the management of Alex Ferguson (b.1941), McLeish was part of an Aberdeen team which took the Scottish Premier League Championship (1980, 1984, and 1985), the Scottish Cup in (1982-84, 1986 and 1990), the League Cup (1986 and 1990) and the European Cup Winners' Cup (1983), where Aberdeen defeated Real Madrid 2-1 in Sweden.

McLeish earned 77 caps for Scotland, including three world-cup finals (1982 in Spain, 1986 in Mexico and 1990 in Italy), making him the third most capped player in the history of the game. In 1990, McLeish was voted Scottish Player of the Year.

McLeish became player-manager at Motherwell (1994), guiding that club to second place in the Premier League the following year. He took over the managership of the Edinburgh side Hibernian (1998), returning that club to the Premier League and taking them to the semi-finals of the Scottish Cup (2000). Recognised as one of Scotland's top football managers, McLeish took on the challenge of that role with the Glasgow team Rangers in 2001.


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