Barry Ferguson
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Barry Ferguson | ||
| Personal information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Barry Ferguson, MBE | |
| Date of birth | February 2, 1978 | |
| Place of birth | Hamilton, Scotland | |
| Height | 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in) | |
| Playing position | Central Midfielder | |
| Club information | ||
| Current club | Rangers | |
| Number | 6 | |
| Senior clubs1 | ||
| Years | Club | App (Gls)* |
| 1994–2003 2003–2005 2005– |
Rangers Blackburn Rovers Rangers |
152 (24) 36 (3) 115 (18) |
| National team2 | ||
| 1999– | Scotland | 43 (3) |
|
1 Senior club appearances and goals |
||
Barry Ferguson, MBE (born February 2, 1978 in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire) is a Scottish professional footballer who plays in midfield. He currently plays for and captains both, Scottish Premier League club Rangers and the Scotland national team.
Contents |
[edit] Club career
[edit] Early career
Ferguson has been a keen Rangers fan since childhood. His older brother, Derek, was a rising star in the Rangers team in the 1980s (though the younger sibling's achievements would eventually eclipse those of the older) and the young Barry was exposed to the inner circle of the club long before officially joining the Rangers first team squad in 1994-95. Ferguson made his first team debut on the last day of the 1996-97 season against Hearts and was voted man of the match for his performance. He became a permanent first team fixture in the 1998-99 season under new manager Dick Advocaat.
He soon became the youngest ever captain of the team in the 2001-02 season, successfully guiding his team to a League Cup and Scottish Cup double. This was also the first season in charge for Alex McLeish. During their second season together (2002-03), Ferguson captained the side to a domestic treble. He also won Scottish Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year and Scottish PFA Players' Player of the Year.
[edit] Blackburn Rovers
At the start of the 2003-04 season, he joined English Premiership club Blackburn Rovers for a fee of £7.5 million. With Everton also chasing Ferguson,[1] Rangers initially denied that he was leaving.[2]
Graeme Souness made Ferguson captain of Blackburn in July 2004 and he seemed to be adapting well to Premiership football, despite the team still struggling and a managerial change, which saw Mark Hughes replacing Souness. However, after just 16 months at the club, Ferguson submitted a written transfer request, admitting that the draw of playing in the Premiership and a Lancashire derby could not compare with an Old Firm match.[3] After much discussion between the clubs, a fee of £4.5 million was agreed and Ferguson rejoined Rangers just before the close of the transfer window in January 2005.[4] Ferguson would later reveal in his book that the fee Rangers paid was actually £2.0 million pounds plus the fees Blackburn owed from the original transfer.
[edit] Rangers
Ferguson returned for the end of the 2004-05 season and was part of the Rangers team that won the league in dramatic fashion on the last day of the season. He was not captain for this however, with McLeish not wanting to remove it mid-season from Fernando Ricksen.
For 2005-06, Ferguson was re-appointed captain. He played the last part of the season carrying an ankle injury. This was later revealed to be snapped ligaments and he confessed that he should have undergone the surgery sooner.[5]
Ferguson was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire MBE on June 17, 2006,[6] and he is also the only current Rangers player to be inducted into the Rangers F.C. Hall of Fame.
On January 1, 2007 it was announced on a Sportsound broadcast on BBC Radio Scotland that Ferguson had been stripped of the Rangers captaincy after a meeting with manager Paul Le Guen. He was also dropped from the squad for the next match. Later Le Guen claimed Ferguson was undermining him.[7] The match at Motherwell was won 1-0 by Rangers, and goalscorer Kris Boyd reportedly showed solidarity with the deposed skipper by holding up 6 fingers: Ferguson's shirt number.[8] Following the resignation of Paul Le Guen as Rangers manager on January 4, 2007,[9] Ferguson was re-instated to the Rangers side. Later that year, sports journalist Graham Spiers published, Paul Le Guen: Enigma (ISBN 1845962915) documenting his tenure at the club. According to Spiers, Le Guen left the club because he was being "undermined" by other Rangers personnel, including Ferguson and then club doctor, Ian McGuinness. [10] New manager Walter Smith, immediately re-appointed Ferguson as captain.
The 2007-08 season began well for Ferguson as he scored a brace in the first SPL match against Inverness.[11] His scoring form continued and he netted the second in a 3-0 win over rivals Celtic as well as in the UEFA Champions League against VfB Stuttgart.[12] The Old Firm goal was Ferguson's first against Celtic since the 2002 Scottish Cup final where he scored a free-kick in a 3-2 win for Rangers. In January 2008, he scored a controversial goal in Rangers' Scottish League Cup semi-final defeat of Hearts. Ferguson later admitted handling the ball in the build up to the goal but that the infringement was unintentional.[13]
Ferguson broke David Narey's record for the number of European appearances made for a Scottish club, by starting in the UEFA Cup match against Werder Bremen; being his 77th game on the continent.[14] He also broke Kenny Dalglish's record for the number of competitive European appearances by a Scottish footballer when he played his 80th game against Sporting Lisbon in the quarter final second leg.[15]
On 17 May 2008, Ferguson made his 400th appearance for Rangers in a Scottish Premier League match against Motherwell at Fir Park.[16]
[edit] International career
Ferguson made his international debut at the age of 20 against Lithuania national football team on September 5, 1998. [17]
However, an injury plagued season prevented him from picking up more caps. He was appointed captain of the national side in 2004 by then manager Berti Vogts following the retirement of Paul Lambert. Ferguson has captained Scotland a total of 26 times.
[edit] Scotland goals
| # | Date | Venue | Opponent | Score | Result | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | 30 May 2000 | Dublin, Ireland |  Republic of Ireland |
2-1 | Win | Friendly match |
| 2. | 7 September 2002 | Toftir, Faroe Islands |  Faroe Islands |
2-2 | Draw | UEFA Euro 2004 qualifying |
| 3. | 17 November 2007 | Glasgow, Scotland |  Italy |
2-1 | Loss | UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying |
[edit] Rangers statistics
| Club | Season | League | Scottish Cup | League Cup | Europe | Total | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| App | Goals | App | Goals | App | Goals | App | Goals | App | Goals | ||
| Rangers | 2007-08 | 38 | 7 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 18 | 1 | 62 | 9 |
| 2006-07 | 32 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 3 | 41 | 7 | |
| 2005-06 | 32 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 46 | 5 | |
| 2004-05 | 13 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 15 | 2 | |
| 2003-04 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 0 | |
| 2002-03 | 36 | 16 | 6 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 48 | 18 | |
| 2001-02 | 22 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 9 | 3 | 39 | 7 | |
| 2000-01 | 30 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 11 | 0 | 47 | 4 | |
| 1999-00 | 31 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 12 | 0 | 49 | 5 | |
| 1998-99 | 22 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 10 | 0 | 39 | 2 | |
| 1997-98 | 7 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 0 | |
| 1996-97 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Total | 267 | 42 | 32 | 6 | 22 | 4 | 82 | 7 | 403 | 59 | |
[edit] Honours
With Rangers
Scottish Cup : 4
[edit] References
- ^ "Everton make Ferguson bid", BBC Sport website, 27 August, 2003.
- ^ "Rangers could lose Ferguson", BBC Sport website, 15 August, 2003.
- ^ "Ferguson turned off by Rovers tie", BBC Sport website, 16 February, 2005.
- ^ "Ferguson clinches Rangers return", BBC Sport website, 1 February, 2005.
- ^ "Ferguson relief at Le Guen plans", BBC Sport website, 18 May 2006.
- ^ "Thorpe/Ferguson head honours list", BBC Sport website, 16 June 2006.
- ^ "Le Guen points blame at Ferguson", BBC Sport website, 2 January 2007.
- ^ "Boyd makes point as Barry sideshow engulfs Rangers", Evening Times, 3 January 2007.
- ^ "Le Guen and Rangers part company", BBC Sport website, 4 January 2007.
- ^ Paul Le Guen: Enigma - A Chronicle of Trauma and Turmoil at Rangers, Random House, ISBN 1845962915
- ^ "Inverness CT 0-3 Rangers", BBC Sport website, 4 August, 2007.
- ^ "Rangers 3-0 Celtic", BBC Sport website, 20 October 2007.
- ^ "Ferguson admits to handling ball", BBC Sport website, 30 January, 2008.
- ^ "Ferguson ready for Euro landmark" BBC Sport website, 5 March 2008
- ^ "I won't let the pain get to me" www.eveningtimes.co.uk, 10 April, 2008
- ^ "Motherwell 1-1 Rangers" BBC Sport website, 17 May, 2008
- ^ "Lithuania v Scotland", The SFA Website, 2007-11-14.
[edit] External links
- Barry Ferguson career stats at Soccerbase
- Barry Ferguson profile at scottishfa.co.uk
- Barry Ferguson's profile and stats
| Sporting positions | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Lorenzo Amoruso |
Rangers FC captain 2000-2003 |
Succeeded by Craig Moore |
| Preceded by Fernando Ricksen |
Rangers FC captain 2005-present |
Succeeded by current captain |
| Preceded by Paul Lambert |
Scotland captain 2003-present |
Succeeded by current captain |
| Awards | ||
Preceded by Gary Naysmith |
Scottish PFA Young Player of the Year 1999 |
Succeeded by Kenny Miller |
Preceded by Henrik Larsson |
Scottish Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year 2000 |
Succeeded by Henrik Larsson |
| Preceded by Paul Lambert |
Scottish Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year 2003 |
Succeeded by Jackie McNamara |
| Preceded by Lorenzo Amoruso |
Scottish PFA Players' Player of the Year 2003 |
Succeeded by Chris Sutton |
|
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