Craig Burley

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Craig Burley
Personal information
Full name	Craig William Burley
Date of birth	April 24, 1971
Place of birth	Ayr, Scotland
Position	Midfielder
Club information
Current club	retired
Professional clubs*
Years	Club	Apps (goals)
1989-1997 1997-1999 1999-2003 2003 2004 2004	Chelsea Celtic Derby County Dundee Preston North End Walsall	114 (7) 64 (20) 73 (10) 2 (0) 4 (0) 5 (0)
National team**
1995-2003	Scotland	46 (3)
* Professional club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 23 July 2006. ** National team caps and goals correct as of 23 July 2006.

Craig William Burley (born on April 24, 1971 in Ayr) is a former Scottish footballer.

A midfielder, Burley started his career with Chelsea. He was a bit-part player in his early days at Stamford Bridge but he started to become a key player for Player-Manager Glenn Hoddle and later Ruud Gullit.

Burley won his first medal in 1997 being part of the Chelsea team that beat Middlesbrough 2-0 in the FA Cup. However during the summer, he signed for Celtic becoming one of Wim Jansen's first signings at the club.

He had a good 1997/1998 season scoring 13 goals and was part of the Celtic team to break Rangers dominance. Craig was voted Scottish Premier League Player of the Year for season 1997/98 by the Scottish Football Writers Association.

The following summer, he played for Scotland in the 1998 World Cup in France and scored in the 1-1 draw with Norway in the second match of the tournament, but was sent off in the final group game against Morocco.

Burley signed for Derby County in 1999 but he suffered a serious injury in a match against Newcastle in 2001 and didn't play for a further year. When he got back, he soon fell out with Manager John Gregory. He even won a Scotland Recall against Austria but Burley shocked his country after announcing his International Retirement blasting Manager Berti Vogts in the Process.

He was released by Derby in the summer of 2003 and the same happened with his following club Dundee after the club went into administration. After spells with Preston North End and Walsall, Burley abruptly retired at only 32 citing that he was fed up with football.

He now works as a pundit on Setanta Sports.

Preceded by: Brian Laudrup

Scottish Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year 1998

Succeeded by: Henrik Larsson

	Scotland squad - 1998 FIFA World Cup
1 Leighton | 2 McNamara | 3 Boyd | 4 Calderwood | 5 Hendry | 6 T. McKinlay | 7 Gallacher | 8 Burley | 9 Durie | 10 Jackson | 11 Collins | 12 Sullivan | 13 Donnelly | 14 Lambert | 15 Gemmill | 16 Weir | 17 B. McKinlay | 18 Elliott | 19 Whyte | 20 Booth | 21 Gould | 22 Dailly | Coach: Brown