Stephen McManus

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Personal information
Stephen McManus
Full name	Stephen McManus
Date of birth	September 10, 1982 (1982-09-10) (age 25)
Place of birth	Lanark, Scotland
Height	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Playing position	Centre back, Left back
Club information
Current club	Celtic
Number	44
Youth clubs
1997-2000	Celtic
Senior clubs¹
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
2000-	Celtic	144 (15)
National team²
2006–	Scotland	013 0(1)
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 3 December 2007. ² National team caps and goals correct as of 17:35, 30 May 2008 (UTC). * Appearances (Goals)

Stephen "Mick" McManus (born 10 September 1982), is a professional footballer who plays in defence and is captain of Celtic F.C in the Scottish Premier League. McManus is a product of Celtic's youth academy and has risen through the ranks to become first team captain ahead of the 2007/2008 season.

1 Club career
2 International career
- 2.1 International goals
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Club career

McManus came through the ranks at Celtic and signed a professional contract on the same day as fellow defender John Kennedy. He made his debut for the first team, under Martin O'Neill, during the 2003/04 season and he has since established himself as first choice central defender at Celtic under Gordon Strachan's managerial reign.

In the 2005/06 season, McManus scored 8 goals (7 of which came in the League). He was made captain for the first league game of the 2006/07 season, in the match against Kilmarnock due to regular club captain Neil Lennon being suspended. Since this game he repeatedly deputised as Celtic's vice-captain throughout the 2006/07 season. On 31 July 2007 McManus was announced as Celtic's captain as he signed a four-year contract. He said:

"To be given the captaincy of Celtic is a tremendous honour. It is undoubtedly one of the highlights of my career so far."^[1]

On the 3 October 2007, McManus scored to put Celtic a goal up against AC Milan at Celtic Park in the group stages of the UEFA Champions League. The match ended 2-1 in Celtic's favour with Kaká equalising for Milan before Scott McDonald scored a late winner for Celtic.

[edit] International career

McManus has been capped at international level for Scotland, coming on as a substitute in the 2-0 defeat to Ukraine on 11 October 2006 to earn his first cap. Since then, he started against Georgia in the first match of the Alex McLeish era, which resulted in a 2-1 win for Scotland as Craig Beattie hit a dramatic late winner. McManus scored his first goal for Scotland in a 3-1 win against Lithuania on 8 September 2007, acrobatically turning a Shaun Maloney cross into the net to put Scotland 2-1 up.

He captained Scotland for the first time on 26th March 2008 in a friendly match against Croatia at Hampden Park in absence of regular captain Barry Ferguson and is now vice-captain of Scotland under George Burley. He said being selected captain of Scotland and Celtic were great honours. The game finished 1-1 with Kenny Miller scoring for Scotland and Niko Kranjčar for Croatia.