Gavin Rae

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Gavin Rae
Personal information
Full name	Gavin Paul Rae
Date of birth	November 28, 1977 (1977-11-28) (age 30)
Place of birth	Aberdeen, Scotland
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Playing position	Midfielder
Club information
Current club	Cardiff City
Number	4
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1996-2004 2004-2007 2007-	Dundee Rangers Cardiff City	212 (23) 028 0(3) 045 0(4)
National team2
2001-	Scotland	013 0(0)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 14:05, 18 May 2008 (UTC). 2 National team caps and goals correct as of 17:39, 30 May 2008 (UTC). * Appearances (Goals)

Gavin Paul Rae (born 28 November 1977 in Aberdeen) is a Scottish international footballer, currently playing in the Football League Championship for Cardiff City.

Contents 1 Club career 1.1 Dundee 1.2 Rangers 1.3 Cardiff City 2 International career 3 Club stats 4 Honours 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Club career

[edit] Dundee

Rae was a central midfielder for his first club Dundee. In total he made 223 appearances for the club scoring 26 goals in a period of eight years.

Rae stuck with the club during the bad financial days during the 2003-2004 season when Dundee hit administration until he was sold to Rangers for £250,000 in January 2004^[1] along with teammate Nacho Novo^[2].

[edit] Rangers

Rae made his debut for Rangers on 3 January 2004 against Celtic but only lasted 30 minutes due to a hamstring injury. After recovering, he managed to score his first goal against Dundee, his former club. However he suffered another injury, damaging his knee against Dundee United on 24 April 2004. His road to recovery was hit by several set-backs before he finally made his return to the Rangers first team on 18 February 2006 against Hibernian. He went on to make regular appearances in the Rangers team, particularly towards the end of the season with fellow midfielder Barry Ferguson requiring an operation due to a long running leg injury.

In the 2006-07 season, Rae was given the captaincy in a number of games when Barry Ferguson was not playing. On January 1, 2007 he was announced as permanent captain after Ferguson's meeting with Paul Le Guen, which saw Ferguson stripped of the captaincy and removed from the squad^[3]. On January 4, 2007 Le Guen resigned from the managerial position at Rangers and new manager Walter Smith re-appointed Ferguson as club captain. He was offered a new deal at the club by Smith but he decided it would be better for him to attempt to find first team football^[4]. Rae left Rangers as a free agent at the end of the 2006-07 season when his contract expired^[5].

On 21 May 2007 he was linked with a move to Hearts with his former teammate at Rangers, Stephen Hughes^[6] but the move did not come to fruition.

On 12 June 2007 Jim Duffy (who was his old coach and mentor at Dundee) stated "Gavin is one of a number of players we are looking at and he's someone I know very well", since that comment was made Rae said himself "I'd definitely welcome the chance to play for Jim Duffy again. Norwich are a very big club with aspirations to play at the highest level and it wasn't that long ago they were competing in the Premiership".

[edit] Cardiff City

Rae was watched by several sides from England, Wales and Scotland and came very close to joining English Championship side Norwich City^[7] but instead on the 23 June 2007 he joined Championship side Cardiff City FC along with fellow Scotsman Steven MacLean on a free transfer.^[8] On the 26 June 2007 he was quoted in an interview saying “Believe me, I am coming to Cardiff fully fit and fully committed. I am fired up to make the most of this chance"

On his arrival Rae found himself in first team action from the start of the season due to a long-term injury to Riccardo Scimeca and also took over the captaincy for the 2-1 home win against Burnley with Darren Purse starting the match on the bench, Scimeca injured and Stephen McPhail dropped from the side and he scored his first goal for the Bluebirds not long after on 15 September in a 2-1 victory over Plymouth Argyle. He went on to make a total of 55 appearances in all competitions in his first year, more than any other player at the club including playing in all 6 matches during the clubs run to the FA Cup Final.

[edit] International career

Rae was still at Dundee when he gained international recognition, winning his first cap for Scotland national football team under manager Craig Brown, in 2001 against Poland^[9]. On 24 March 2008 he received his first call-up to the squad for two years, and also his first while at Cardiff.^[10] He came on as a substitute at half-time during a 1-1 draw with Croatia.

[edit] Club stats

As of 18 May 2008

Club Performance

Club	Season	League		National Cup		League Cup		Other		Total
		App	Goals	App	Goals	App	Goals	App	Goals	App	Goals
Dundee	1995-96	6	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	6	0
	1996-97	17	2	3	0	0	0	0	0	20	3
	1997-98	6	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	6	0
	1998-99	30	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	30	1
	1999-00	35	4	2	1	3	0	0	0	40	5
	2000-01	32	4	4	0	1	0	1	0	38	4
	2001-02	36	6	2	0	2	0	1	0	41	6
	2002-03	37	4	6	1	1	0	0	0	44	5
	2003-04	13	2	0	0	1	0	4	1	18	3
Subtotal		212	23	17	2	8	0	6	1	243	26
Rangers	2004-05	10	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	11	2
	2005-06	8	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	8	0
	2006-07	10	1	1	0	2	0	7	0	20	1
Subtotal		240	26	19	2	10	0	13	1	282	29
Cardiff City	2007-08	45	4	6	0	4	0	0	0	55	4
Total		285	30	25	2	14	0	13	1	337	33

[edit] Honours

Cardiff

• FA Cup Runner-up: 1
  

2007-08

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Gavin Rae career stats at Soccerbase
• Gavin Rae player profile at cardiffcityfc.co.uk
• Gavin Rae player profile at football.co.uk
• Gavin Rae player profile at 4thegame.com
• Gavin Rae player profile at rangers.co.uk

v • d • e Cardiff City F.C. – current squad 2 McNaughton • 3 Capaldi • 4 Rae • 5 Purse • 6 Loovens • 7 Whittingham • 8 Fowler • 10 McPhail • 11 Parry • 12 Johnson • 14 Feeney • 16 Ledley • 19 Scimeca • 20 Thompson • 23 Blake • 25 Sak • 26 Brown • 30 Ramsey • 31 Magennis • 36 Hasselbaink • –– Flood • Manager: Jones