Summary
The Scottish Premiership has produced several outstanding players over the years.
Though many people consider that the English top flight is superior, that does not mean that Scotland has not produced some excellent players.
None of the participants are active players, however many have transitioned into management upon retirement.
Throughout the years, several stars have graced the Scottish Premiership. The top division in Scotland is frequently held to a lower calibre than the Premier League, particularly in England, but this does not diminish the sheer number of excellent players who have played for Scotland over the years.
Though many people connect success in Scotland with Celtic and Rangers, this has not always been the case. Aberdeen and Dundee United, particularly in the 1980s, went to considerable efforts to prevent the Old Firm from gaining complete control of the country, winning countless domestic and continental championships between them.
Many excellent players in modern football have spent significant amounts of time in Scotland, including current Liverpool players Virgil van Dijk and Andy Robertson. So, who are the finest players who have ever played in Scotland’s top flight?
Ranking Factors
Lists are subjective, therefore two lists on the same topic with different entries are more than possible, depending on the writer’s opinions. With being said, this list has been sorted based on the following:
Tenure – How many years did each entrant play in Scotland’s top flight?
Legacy – How well is each entrant remembered by the fans of the club(s) for whom they played?
Honours gained – A basic but crucial factor: how much success did each entrant achieve?
The 10 greatest Scottish top flight players in history.
Rank
Name
Playing Career
Notable teams in Scotland
1.
Davie Cooper
1974-1995
Clydebank, Rangers, and Motherwell
2.
Kenny Dalglish
1969-1990
Celtic
3.
Ally McCoist
1978-2001
Rangers
4.
Henrik Larsson
1989-2013
Celtic
5.
Jimmy Johnstone
1962-1979
Celtic
6.
Alex McLeish
1976-1995
Aberdeen
7.
Richard Gough
1980-2001
Dundee United, Rangers
8.
Gordon Strachan
1974-1997
Dundee, Aberdeen
9.
Andy Goram
1981-2004
Hibernian, Rangers
10.
John Robertson
1981-2000
Hearts of Midlothian
John Robertson
Hearts of Midlothian
Few players are more synonymous with Hearts of Midlothian than John Robertson, the club’s all-time leading scorer. Robertson, a striker, made his debut with Hearts as a teenager in the early 1980s. Though he won no major titles with the club, he led Hearts to second place in the league in 1986, having helped them to promotion from the First Division three years before.
Robertson’s form piqued the interest of many teams, including Newcastle United, which signed him in 1988. However, after 14 games and no goals, the forward returned to Hearts the following year, where he remained for the next decade. Robertson finished his career with six runners-up medals: three from the league, two from the Scottish Cup, and one from the League Cup. He retired with 214 league goals for the Edinburgh club, a record that holds today.
9Andy Goram
Hibernian and Rangers
“When I pass away, it will say on my tombstone, ‘Andy Goram broke his heart.'”
When asked about Andy Goram in the 1990s, Celtic manager Tommy Burns responded as follows. Goram began his career as a custodian with Oldham Athletic before heading to Scotland in 1987 to join Hibernian, where his father played, and staying for four years.
Goram was most known for his seven-year career with Rangers in the 1990s, during which he gained the nickname “The Goalie” for his exceptional shape and shot-stopping prowess. Goram won five league titles with the Gers and was a key player in each one. Goram, a Scotland international, spent his final years playing for Motherwell, Hamilton Academical, Queen of the South, and Elgin City before retiring in 2004.
8Gordon Strachan
Dundee and Aberdeen
Gordon Strachan is most known for his time as a player in England, when he played for Manchester United, Leeds United, and Coventry City. However, he spent a decade of his career in Scotland, establishing himself as one of the league’s greatest midfielders. Strachan began his playing career at Dundee, where he spent three seasons before joining Aberdeen in 1977.
During his seven years at Pittodrie, he played an important role in the Dons breaking the Old Firm’s supremacy over the country. Strachan helped Aberdeen win two league titles, three Scottish Cups, and, most notably, the European Cup Winners’ Cup and European Super Cup in 1983, defeating Real Madrid in the former competition’s final.
7Richard Gough
Dundee United and Rangers
After spending time as a young player in England and South Africa, defender Richard Gough began his senior career with Dundee United in 1980. Gough was hired by legendary manager Jim McLean and rapidly became an important member of his first squad, helping them win the league title in 1983 and advance to the European Cup semi-finals the following season.
Gough then relocated to England, where he captained Tottenham Hotspur to the 1987 FA Cup final defeat. His spell south of the border was brief, as Gough joined Rangers only a year after moving to London, where he stayed for a decade.
Gough, a Scotland international, captained the Rangers team that famously won nine straight league titles between 1989 and 1997, before leaving the club for America in the year they won their ninth consecutive trophy.
6Alex McLeish
Aberdeen
Alex McLeish joined Aberdeen’s senior team in 1978 after two years with their junior team, where he would play for the next 16 years. McLeish, a defender, made his debut the same year Sir Alex Ferguson was appointed manager of the club, and he swiftly rose to prominence within the team.
Aberdeen, under Ferguson, were able to reduce Rangers and Celtic’s dominance in Scotland. Much of this was due to their defence, which featured McLeish, Jim Leighton, and Willie Miller and is one of the league’s best-ever backlines. McLeish played an important role in Aberdeen’s European Cup Winners’ Cup victory, including a crucial goal against Bayern Munich.
McLeish left Aberdeen in 1994 after nearly 500 appearances for the club, which, combined with his awards, established his status as an icon at Pittodrie.
5Jimmy Johnstone
Celtic
Jimmy Johnstone, a tiny attacker, is regarded as one of Celtic’s greatest-ever talents, a lofty accolade for a team with so many options. Nicknamed “Jinky” for his outstanding dribbling abilities, Johnstone was a member of the Lisbon Lions who led Celtic to European Cup triumph in 1967, the same year he finished third in the Ballon d’Or rankings.
Johnstone spent 13 years with the Glasgow-based team, making his professional football debut in 1962. Between 1965 and 1974, Johnstone won nine league titles in green and white hoops, and nine domestic cups. A legend in every sense of the word, a statue of Johnstone currently stands outside Celtic Park’s main entrance, a monument to his impact as a player.
4Henrik Larsson
Celtic
After four years of football in his native Sweden, Henrik Larsson came to Feyenoord in 1993, where he established himself. After a contract dispute with the club in 1997 and a request to leave, Larsson joined Celtic, where he established himself as maybe the best foreign player to ever play in the Premiership.
Larsson had an incredible record, scoring 224 goals and providing 63 assists in 292 appearances over seven years at Glasgow. The Swede, who has appeared in over 100 international matches for his country, is regarded as one of Celtic’s greatest forwards, having led the team to four league crowns and four domestic cups.
The Swede joined Barcelona on a free transfer in 2004, after finishing as Celtic’s top scorer in six of his seven full seasons there.
3Ally McCoist
Rangers
Ally McCoist, now a popular football pundit, began his career as a footballer with St Johnstone, debuting in 1979. Sunderland made a bid for McCoist based on his form and potential, and the forward became the club’s record signing in 1981, but he struggled for form in England as part of a relegation-battling team.
McCoist returned to Scotland in 1983 to join Rangers, where he would spend 15 years. McCoist immediately established himself as an important member of the Rangers club, capitalising on his promise as a young player and earning his first league championship in 1987. His second came two years later, the first of nine consecutive league championships that Rangers won between 1989 and 1997, with McCoist playing a key role in each victory.
By the time he left Rangers in 1998, the clinical talisman had scored 355 goals in all competitions, establishing himself as the club’s all-time leading scorer. McCoist, a two-time European Golden Boot winner, played three more seasons for Kilmarnock before retiring in 2001.
2Kenny Dalglish
Celtic
Sir Kenny Dalglish is regarded as a legend on Merseyside for his time and successes with Liverpool, and not just by those who attend Anfield. Before moving to England in 1977, the Scot played with Celtic, where he made his senior debut in 1969.
Over the next eight years, Dalglish scored 167 goals for Celtic in over 300 appearances. Dalglish gradually established himself as a regular in the club’s first team, and “King Kenny” was soon unstoppable. Dalglish, the Scotland national team’s equal best scorer and most capped player, won everything there was to win domestically with the Hoops.
Dalglish helped Celtic win four league titles, four Scottish Cups, and a League Cup during his stint with the club. Fans were upset by his departure in 1977, but he knew he had established himself as a legend, not just at Celtic but throughout Scottish football.
1Davie Cooper
Clydebank, Rangers, Motherwell
Cooper, a flamboyant winger, is widely regarded as one of Scotland’s best players of all time, if not the best, in terms of natural talent. Cooper began his career with three seasons at Clydebank before joining Rangers in 1977, where he would play for the next twelve years.
Cooper won the league three times and 10 domestic cups during his span. Cooper was recognised for the absolute magic he could conjure up on a football pitch with his left foot, which most of the time functioned as a wand rather than a limb. He was extremely difficult to dispossess, with a level of technique that more than compensated for his winger’s relative lack of speed.
Cooper joined Motherwell in 1989 and played there for four more seasons before returning to Clydebank in 1993 and retiring two seasons later. The wide player, who has 22 caps for Scotland, is still regarded as a great in the country’s top division.
