Craig Burley

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Craig William Burley (born on April 24, 1971 in Ayr) is a former Scottish footballer and is the nephew of current Scotland manager, George Burley.

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. Burley then joined Scottish Premier League team Dundee, however his spell was short lived as he was released when Dundee went into administration. Burley managed a total of 1 and a half games with Dundee when he was sent off in only his second start against fellow SPL outfit Hibernian F.C. After being released from Dundee, Burley went on to have 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 and commentator on Setanta Sports.

v • d • e Scotland squad - UEFA Euro 1996 1 Leighton • 2 McKimmie • 3 Boyd • 4 Calderwood • 5 Hendry • 6 Whyte • 7 Spencer • 8 McCall • 9 McCoist • 10 McAllister • 11 Collins • 12 Goram • 13 T. McKinlay • 14 Durie • 15 Jess • 16 Burley • 17 B. McKinlay • 18 Gallacher • 19 Jackson • 20 Booth • 21 Gemmill • 22 Walker • Coach: Brown

v • d • e 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

This biographical article related to Scottish Association football is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.