James J. "Reddie" Lang was a Scottish

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 footballer who is generally considered to be the first professional player.

Football career

Jimmy Lang's playing career started with Glasgow Eastern, from where he moved to Clydesdale

Clydesdale F.C.

Clydesdale F.C. were a nineteenth-century Glasgow-based soccer club, who were attached to Clydesdale Cricket Club during the 1870s. In 1873, Clydesdale was one of the teams to found the Scottish Football Association....

 and then Third Lanark

Third Lanark A.C.

Third Lanark Athletic Club was a football club that originally existed between 1872 and 1967, 95 years in existence, based in Glasgow, Scotland. Third Lanark were known as Thirds, the Warriors, the Redcoats and the Hi Hi's...

. While with Clydesdale he played in the first ever 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. He also became involved with the Glasgow

Glasgow

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...

 vs. Sheffield

Sheffield and Hallamshire Football Association

The Sheffield and Hallamshire Football Association was formed in Sheffield in 1867 and was the first County Football Association in England. Its teams adopted the Sheffield Rules of football up until 1878 when they were merged with the Football Association's rules...

 association matches and at the 1876 meeting he caught the attention of The Wednesday

Sheffield Wednesday F.C.

Sheffield Wednesday Football Club are a football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, who are currently competing in the Football League One in the 2011-12 season, in England. Sheffield Wednesday are one of the oldest professional clubs in the world and the fourth oldest in the...

 board. They subsequently invited him to play for their team. He was not paid by the club but instead gained employment with a company in Garden Street owned by one of the directors, Walter Fearnehough. Although the family business manufactured "Bayonet Spirals, Ledger Blades and Chaff Knives" Lang received no formal duties and he spent most of the day reading the paper.

Lang returned to Third Lanark in 1877 and played in their 1878 Scottish Cup final defeat but joined Wednesday for a second time in 1879. Remarkably, he prospered in Sheffield despite only having vision in one eye, having lost the use of the other in a shipyard accident in Clydebank

Clydebank

Clydebank is a town in West Dunbartonshire, in the Central Lowlands of Scotland. Situated on the north bank of the River Clyde, Clydebank borders Dumbarton, the town with which it was combined to form West Dunbartonshire, as well as the town of Milngavie in East Dunbartonshire, and the Yoker and...

. When Lang part company with Wednesday in 1886 it was, ironically, due to the rise of professionalism. At that time Sheffield Wednesday were still an "amateur" club and he moved across the Pennines to the openly professional Burnley

Burnley F.C.

Burnley Football Club are a professional English Football League club based in Burnley, Lancashire. Nicknamed the Clarets, due to the dominant colour of their home shirts, they were founder members of the Football League in 1888...

. He won two international caps for 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...

, the first on 25 March 1876 in a 4-0 win over 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...

 (the first international

Scotland v Wales (1876)

The first international match for the Wales national football team came on 25 March 1876 when they played Scotland at Hamilton Crescent, Partick, the home of the West of Scotland Cricket Club, with the Scots claiming an emphatic 4–0 victory...

between the two countries) and the second in 1878, scoring two goals.