Craig Levein
Encyclopedia
Craig William Levein is a Scottish former professional footballer and manager of the Scotland national team
Scotland national football team
The Scotland national football team represents Scotland in international football and is controlled by the Scottish Football Association. Scotland are the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside England, whom they played in the world's first international football match in 1872...

. During his playing career he played for Cowdenbeath
Cowdenbeath F.C.
Cowdenbeath Football Club are a professional Scottish football team based in the town of Cowdenbeath, Fife. They currently play in the Second Division of the Scottish Football League. The club plays its home games at Central Park in the centre of the town which has the unusual feature of a motor...

 and Heart of Midlothian
Heart of Midlothian F.C.
Heart of Midlothian Football Club are a Scottish professional football club based in Gorgie, in the west of Edinburgh. They currently play in the Scottish Premier League and are one of the two principal clubs in the city, the other being Hibernian...

. He won 16 caps for Scotland and was part of his country's 1990 World Cup squad in Italy.

Early career

As a youth, Levein attended Inverkeithing High School
Inverkeithing High School
Inverkeithing High School is a secondary school located in Inverkeithing, a town in West Fife, Scotland, on the North side of the Forth Road Bridge...

, where he was in the football team alongside another future Scottish international footballer, Gordon Durie
Gordon Durie
Gordon Scott Durie , known as Jukebox after the TV programme 'Jukebox Jury', is a Scottish former professional footballer, a utility player who usually played as a striker.- Playing career :...

. His early football career saw him turn out for Dalgety Bay
Dalgety Bay
Dalgety Bay Today, Dalgety Bay functions largely as a dormitory suburb of Edinburgh and to the rest of Fife. While the architecture of the town reflects construction by volume housebuilders, the town is a regular winner of the Best Kept Small Town title...

, Leven Royals and Inverkeithing under-16s. At the age of 15, however, he gave up football for a year, only resuming when his brother, who played for junior
Scottish Junior Football Association
The Scottish Junior Football Association is an affiliated national association of the Scottish Football Association and is the governing body for the Junior grade of football in Scotland. The term "Junior" refers to the level of football played...

 club Lochore Welfare
Lochore Welfare F.C.
Lochore Welfare F.C. are a Scottish football club from the village of Crosshill, Fife. Members of the Scottish Junior Football Association, the club currently compete in the SJFA East Central Division. Originally formed in 1934, the club are based at Central Park and their present home colours are...

 invited him to training there. Levein subsequently signed for Lochore and after trials with several senior clubs he finally joined Cowdenbeath in 1981.

Levein quickly established himself in the first team at Central Park
Central Park, Cowdenbeath
Central Park is a football stadium in Cowdenbeath, Scotland. It is the home ground of Cowdenbeath F.C.. The ground is situated in the centre of the town, just off the High Street. Central Park has a capacity of 4,370. The most unusual feature of the ground is a tarmac race-track circling the pitch,...

 and soon became a target for larger clubs than Cowdenbeath.

Hearts

In 1983 he moved to Heart of Midlothian for a fee of £40,000 and soon found himself a regular place in the Hearts first team. Levein won the SPFA Young Player of the Year award in 1985 and in 1986 became the first player to retain the title. 1986 was the season when Hearts chased a league and cup double. In the league they were minutes away from lifting the title before goals in the last 10 minutes of the season by Albert Kidd
Albert Kidd
Albert Kidd is a Scottish former football player who now lives in Australia. He is best known in Scottish football for scoring two goals for Dundee against Hearts on the final day of the 1985–86 season to deny Hearts the championship.Going into the final day of the 1985–86 season,...

 gave Hearts their first league defeat in 31 games. It was enough to knock Hearts off the top of the table and hand the title to Celtic. Levein and his team mates lost 3-0 the week after in the Scottish Cup
Scottish Cup
The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,, commonly known as the Scottish Cup or the William Hill Scottish Cup for sponsorship purposes, is the main national cup competition in Scottish football. It is a knockout cup competition run by and named after the Scottish Football Association.The...

 final against Alex Ferguson
Alex Ferguson
Sir Alexander Chapman "Alex" Ferguson, CBE is a Scottish association football manager and former player, currently managing Manchester United, where he has been in charge since 1986...

 managed Aberdeen.

1986 brought further woe for the young Levein when he picked up a serious knee injury in a reserve game against Hibernian. The injury was to change his life. He had a recurrence of the injury in 1988 when he collapsed unchallenged in a game against Rangers and spent a second year out of the game. In 1997 he was forced to retire from the game through knee injury after making 401 appearances for Hearts.

It was not just injuries that kept Levein from playing during his time at Hearts; he was once given a 12-game ban after punching, and breaking the nose of, Hearts teammate Graeme Hogg
Graeme Hogg
Graeme Hogg is a retired Scottish footballer.He began his career with Manchester United in 1984 and went on to play 83 league games for the club before joining Portsmouth in 1988...

 during a pre-season friendly against Raith Rovers
Raith Rovers F.C.
Raith Rovers Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in Kirkcaldy, Fife. They are members of the Scottish Football League, currently playing in the First Division, having secured promotion from the Second Division as champions in 2009. Rovers have won one national trophy, the...

.

Scotland

He made his Scotland debut in March 1990, a 1–0 win against reigning world champions, Argentina
Argentina national football team
The Argentina national football team represents Argentina in association football and is controlled by the Argentine Football Association , the governing body for football in Argentina. Argentina's home stadium is Estadio Monumental Antonio Vespucio Liberti and their head coach is Alejandro...

, at Hampden Park
Hampden Park
Hampden Park is a football stadium in the Mount Florida area of Glasgow, Scotland. The 52,063 capacity venue serves as the national stadium of football in Scotland...

 and played well enough to earn a place in Scotland's 1990 World Cup squad. Levein won 16 caps for the Scotland national team
Scotland national football team
The Scotland national football team represents Scotland in international football and is controlled by the Scottish Football Association. Scotland are the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside England, whom they played in the world's first international football match in 1872...

.

Coaching and managerial career

After being forced into retirement as a player, Levein had coaching positions at Hearts and at Livingston
Livingston F.C.
Livingston Football Club is a Scottish association football club based in Livingston, West Lothian. The club currently plays in the Scottish Football League First Division.The club was founded in 1943 as Ferranti Thistle, a works team...

. In November 1997 he was appointed as manager of Cowdenbeath
Cowdenbeath F.C.
Cowdenbeath Football Club are a professional Scottish football team based in the town of Cowdenbeath, Fife. They currently play in the Second Division of the Scottish Football League. The club plays its home games at Central Park in the centre of the town which has the unusual feature of a motor...

 and turned a struggling team into one that could challenge for promotion. Cowdenbeath were promoted in 2001, but Levein had left in December 2000 to take over as manager at Hearts.

Hearts

His time in charge of Hearts was highly successful, where he guided them to third place in the SPL in two successive seasons and thus guided them into European competition. He was the first manager to take Hearts into Europe in successive seasons since the 1960s.

Leicester City

His impressive record in Scotland caught the attention of Leicester City
Leicester City F.C.
Leicester City Football Club , also known as The Foxes, is an English professional football club based at the King Power Stadium in Leicester...

, who appointed Levein as manager on 29 October 2004. However after a poor start to the 2005–06 season
2005-06 in English football
The 2005–06 season was the 126th season of competitive football in England.-Overview:*The rebuilt Wembley Stadium was due to open in time for the FA Cup final in May. However, in August 2005, The Football Association reserved the Millennium Stadium as a backup, as there was some doubt whether...

, which left the club languishing third from bottom in the Championship
Football League Championship
The Football League Championship is the highest division of The Football League and second-highest division overall in the English football league system after the Premier League...

 relegation zone, he was sacked as manager on 25 January 2006.

Raith Rovers

Levein was appointed as manager of his boyhood heroes, Scottish Second Division club Raith Rovers, on 5 September 2006, on a non-contract basis. However, after Dundee United parted company with Craig Brewster
Craig Brewster
Craig James Brewster is a Scottish football player and coach. He made his name in a long and successful career playing as a striker for numerous clubs in Scotland, particularly Forfar Athletic, Raith Rovers, Dundee United and Dunfermline Athletic...

, Levein left his non-contract role at Raith Rovers to take up the job at Tannadice
Tannadice Park
Tannadice Park, usually referred to as Tannadice, is a football stadium located on Tannadice Street in the Scottish city of Dundee. The stadium is home of Dundee United F.C. and has a capacity of 14,209.-Early days :...

.

Dundee United

He was unveiled to the press on 30 October 2006. Levein guided United to four successive home victories, earning him 'Manager of the Month' for November 2006, later repeating the award in March 2007 and again in October 2007. On 21 January 2008 he was appointed Director of Football at the club, giving him a seat on the Board of Directors in addition to his existing managerial responsibilities. In August 2008, he was fined £5000 by the SFA for accusing a referee of bias after a game against Rangers.

Scotland

On 23 December 2009, Levein left Dundee United to become the new Scotland
Scotland national football team
The Scotland national football team represents Scotland in international football and is controlled by the Scottish Football Association. Scotland are the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside England, whom they played in the world's first international football match in 1872...

 manager. He agreed a five and a half year deal. In his first match in charge against the Czech Republic
Czech Republic national football team
The Czech Republic national football team represents the Czech Republic in association football and is controlled by the Football Association of the Czech Republic, the governing body for football in the Czech Republic. Their current head coach is Michal Bílek...

, the team they would later face in the UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying Group I
UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying Group I
This page shows the standings and results for Group I of the UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying tournament.- Standings :- Results and fixtures :Group I fixtures were negotiated between the participants at a meeting in Madrid, Spain, on 19 February 2010....

, his team posted a 1–0 win over the Czechs, with the goal coming from Celtic
Celtic F.C.
Celtic Football Club is a Scottish football club based in the Parkhead area of Glasgow, which currently plays in the Scottish Premier League. The club was established in 1887, and played its first game in 1888. Celtic have won the Scottish League Championship on 42 occasions, most recently in the...

 captain Scott Brown. However his second game in charge would not be as successful with Scotland going down 3–0 to Sweden
Sweden national football team
The Swedish national football team represents Sweden in association football and is controlled by the Swedish Football Association, the governing body for Football in Sweden. Sweden's home ground is Råsunda Stadium in Stockholms län and their head coach is Erik Hamrén. Sweden made their first...

 on 12 August 2010. This was also followed by a disappointing 0–0 draw with Lithuania
Lithuania national football team
The national football team of Lithuania is under the auspices of the Lithuanian Football Federation. It played its first match in 1923. In 1940, Lithuania was occupied by the Soviet Union; the country regained its independence in 1990 and played their first match as a new nation against Georgia on...

 and an unconvincing 2–1 victory over Liechtenstein
Liechtenstein national football team
The Liechtenstein national football team is the national football team of Liechtenstein and is controlled by the Liechtenstein Football Association. The organisation is known as the Liechtensteiner Fussballverband in German. The team's first match was an unofficial match against Malta in Seoul, a...

 in Scotland’s first two Euro 2012 qualifying matches. Levein dropped in-form striker Kenny Miller
Kenny Miller
Kenneth "Kenny" Miller is a Scottish footballer who plays as a striker for Cardiff City and the Scotland national football team...

 and played an ultra-defensive 4–6–0 against Czech Republic in their third game. This gave Levein the unenviable record of being the first ever Scotland manager to name a starting eleven without a recognised striker. After Scotland lost 1–0, calls for him to be sacked were widespread from both supporters and media.

In the following game, against World and European champions Spain
Spain national football team
The Spain national football team represents Spain in international association football and is controlled by the Royal Spanish Football Federation, the governing body for football in Spain. The current head coach is Vicente del Bosque...

, Levein adopted a more conventional 4–5–1 formation with Miller in attack. Scotland lost 2–3 despite coming back from 0–2 down to draw level at 2–2. Scotland then beat Faroe Islands
Faroe Islands national football team
The Faroe Islands national football team represents the Faroe Islands in association football and is controlled by the Faroe Islands Football Association, the governing body for football in the Faroe Islands. The Faroe Islands became a member of FIFA in 1988 and UEFA in 1990 and are the third...

 3–0 in a friendly where Levein gave seven debuts due to 9 withdrawals from the initial squad. Scotland won the first two matches of the 2011 Nations Cup with ease, beating Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland national football team
The Northern Ireland national football team represents Northern Ireland in international association football. Before 1921 all of Ireland was represented by a single side, the Ireland national football team, organised by the Irish Football Association...

 3–0 and Wales
Wales national football team
The Wales national football team represents Wales in international football. It is controlled by the Football Association of Wales , the governing body for football in Wales, and the third oldest national football association in the world. The team have only qualified for a major international...

 3–1. The Scots lost 1–0 to the Republic of Ireland
Republic of Ireland national football team
The Republic of Ireland national football team represents Ireland in association football. It is run by the Football Association of Ireland and currently plays home fixtures at Aviva Stadium in Dublin, which opened in May 2010....

 in their third game, meaning that the Republic won the first Nations Cup tournament.

Scotland then won an August 2011 friendly against Denmark
Denmark national football team
The Denmark national football team represents Denmark in association football and is controlled by the Danish Football Association , the governing body for the football clubs which are organized under DBU...

 by 2–1. Scotland realistically needed to beat the Czech Republic in their next qualifier, but could only draw 2–2 after two late controversial penalty kick
Penalty kick
A penalty kick is a type of direct free kick in association football, taken from twelve yards out from goal and with only the goalkeeper of the defending team between the penalty taker and the goal.Penalty kicks are performed during normal play...

 decisions by Dutch referee Kevin Blom
Kevin Blom
Kevin Blom is a Dutch football referee, who officiates for FIFA and UEFA. He has refereed in the Eerste Divisie, the Eredivisie and the UEFA Champions League. His home town is Alphen aan den Rijn....

. Scotland won their next two qualifiers against Lithuania and Liechtenstein (both by 1–0) to give themselves a chance of finishing second in the group. However they were unable to do so as they lost 3-1 to Spain
Spain national football team
The Spain national football team represents Spain in international association football and is controlled by the Royal Spanish Football Federation, the governing body for football in Spain. The current head coach is Vicente del Bosque...

 with Lithuania also losing 4-1 to Czech Republic.

Career statistics

|-
|1981/82||rowspan=3|Cowdenbeath
Cowdenbeath F.C.
Cowdenbeath Football Club are a professional Scottish football team based in the town of Cowdenbeath, Fife. They currently play in the Second Division of the Scottish Football League. The club plays its home games at Central Park in the centre of the town which has the unusual feature of a motor...

||rowspan=3|Scottish Second Division||rowspan=3|60||rowspan=3|0||rowspan=3 colspan=2|N/A||rowspan=3 colspan=2|N/A||rowspan=3 colspan=2|—||rowspan=3|60||rowspan=3|0
|-
|1982/83
|-
|rowspan=2|1983/84
|-
|rowspan=13|Heart of Midlothian
Heart of Midlothian F.C.
Heart of Midlothian Football Club are a Scottish professional football club based in Gorgie, in the west of Edinburgh. They currently play in the Scottish Premier League and are one of the two principal clubs in the city, the other being Hibernian...

||rowspan=13|Scottish Premier Division||19||0||2||0||0||0||colspan=2|—||21||0
|-
|1984/85||36||1||4||0||5||1||2||0||47||2
|-
|1985/86||33||2||5||0||3||0||colspan=2|—||41||2
|-
|1986/87||12||0||0||0||1||0||2||0||15||0
|-
|1987/88||21||0||0||0||0||0||colspan=2|—||21||0
|-
|1988/89||9||0||2||0||0||0||2||0||13||0
|-
|1989/90||35||0||3||0||3||0||colspan=2|—||41||0
|-
|1990/91||33||4||0||0||3||0||4||0||40||4
|-
|1991/92||36||2||4||0||3||0||colspan=2|—||43||2
|-
|1992/93||37||3||3||0||3||0||3||1||46||4
|-
|1993/94||30||3||3||0||2||0||2||0||37||3
|-
|1994/95||24||0||4||0||2||0||colspan=2|—||30||0
|-
|1995/96||1||0||0||0||2||0||colspan=2|—||3||0
384||15||48||0||79||1||60||1||571||17

International

|-
|1990||6||0
|-
|1991||2||0
|-
|1992||1||0
|-
|1993||3||0
|-
|1994||4||0
|-
!Total!!16||0
|}

Managerial record

eam at rom o Record
G W D L Win %
Cowdenbeath
Cowdenbeath F.C.
Cowdenbeath Football Club are a professional Scottish football team based in the town of Cowdenbeath, Fife. They currently play in the Second Division of the Scottish Football League. The club plays its home games at Central Park in the centre of the town which has the unusual feature of a motor...

  1997 2000
Hearts   2000 2004
Leicester City
Leicester City F.C.
Leicester City Football Club , also known as The Foxes, is an English professional football club based at the King Power Stadium in Leicester...

  2004 2006
Raith Rovers
Raith Rovers F.C.
Raith Rovers Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in Kirkcaldy, Fife. They are members of the Scottish Football League, currently playing in the First Division, having secured promotion from the Second Division as champions in 2009. Rovers have won one national trophy, the...

  2006 2006
Dundee United
Dundee United F.C.
Dundee United Football Club is a Scottish professional football club located in the city of Dundee. Formed in 1909, originally as Dundee Hibernian, the club changed to the present name in 1923...

  2006 2009
Scotland
Scotland national football team
The Scotland national football team represents Scotland in international football and is controlled by the Scottish Football Association. Scotland are the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside England, whom they played in the world's first international football match in 1872...

  2009 Present

Hearts

  • Scottish Cup
    Scottish Cup
    The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,, commonly known as the Scottish Cup or the William Hill Scottish Cup for sponsorship purposes, is the main national cup competition in Scottish football. It is a knockout cup competition run by and named after the Scottish Football Association.The...

     Runner-up: 1
1985–86
1985-86 in Scottish football
The 1985–86 season was the 89th season of competitive football in Scotland.-Key events:With Rangers once again failing to mount a title challenge, manager Jock Wallace's second spell as manager ended in April when he was sacked and the club appointed Graeme Souness as player-manager,...

  • Scottish PFA Young Player of the Year
    Scottish PFA Young Player of the Year
    The Scottish PFA Young Player of the Year is named at the end of every Scottish football season. The members of the Professional Footballers' Association vote on which of its young members played the best football in the previous year. The award was first given in 1978.- List of winners :-Winners...

    : 2
1985
1984-85 in Scottish football
The 1984–85 season was the 88th season of competitive football in Scotland. This is the last time a non Old Firm club has won the Scottish Premier title.-Scottish Premier Division:Champions: AberdeenRelegated: Dumbarton, Morton....

, 1986
1985-86 in Scottish football
The 1985–86 season was the 89th season of competitive football in Scotland.-Key events:With Rangers once again failing to mount a title challenge, manager Jock Wallace's second spell as manager ended in April when he was sacked and the club appointed Graeme Souness as player-manager,...


Hearts

  • SPL Manager of the Month
    Scottish Premier League monthly awards
    This article lists the winners of the Manager, Player and Young Player monthly awards in the Scottish Premier League since the2000–01 season. No Young Player of the Month were awarded in the 2000–01 season. Rising Star awards were issued most months in the 2007–08 season.The awards are currently...

    : 2
Dec 2001
December 2001
December 2001: January – February – March – April – May – June – July – August – September – October – November – December-----December 2, 2001:* Enron files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection five days after Dynegy canceled a buyout bid .-December 4, 2001:...

, Apr 2003
April 2003
April 2003: January – February – March – April – May – June – July – August – September – October – November – December-April 1, 2003:...


Dundee United

  • SPL Manager of the Month
    Scottish Premier League monthly awards
    This article lists the winners of the Manager, Player and Young Player monthly awards in the Scottish Premier League since the2000–01 season. No Young Player of the Month were awarded in the 2000–01 season. Rising Star awards were issued most months in the 2007–08 season.The awards are currently...

    : 4
Nov 2006
November 2006
November 2006 was the eleventh month of that year. It began on a Wednesday and 30 days later, ended on a Thursday....

, Mar 2007
March 2007
March 2007 was the third month of that year. It began on a Thursday, and ended 31 days later on a Saturday.-International holidays:* March 1 – St Davids Day United Kingdom* March 4 – Purim * March 10 – Arba'een...

, Oct 2007
October 2007
October 2007 is the tenth month of that year. It began on a Monday and 31 days later, ended on a Wednesday.-International holidays:* October 2 – Gandhi Jayanti * October 3 – Last third of Ramadan which includes Laylat al-Qadr...

, Nov 2009
November 2009
- Portal:Current events :This is an archived version of Wikipedia's Current events Portal from November 2009....

  • Scottish League Cup
    Scottish League Cup
    The Scottish League Cup is a football competition open to all Scottish Football League and Scottish Premier League clubs. At present it is also known as the Scottish Communities League Cup owing to the sponsorship deal in place with the Scottish Government. In the past it has been sponsored by...

     Runner-up: 1
2007–08
2007-08 in Scottish football
The 2007-08 season was the 111th season of competitive football in Scotland.-Overview:* Gretna were competing in the Scottish Premier League for the first time, their first ever season in the top-flight, after being promoted as First Division champions the previous season.* Dunfermline Athletic...


External links

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