Craig Burley

Last updated

Craig Burley
Personal information
Full name Craig William Burley [1]
Date of birth (1971-09-24) 24 September 1971 (age 53) [1]
Place of birth Ayr, [1] Scotland
Height 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) [2]
Position(s) Midfielder [1]
Youth career
Chelsea
Senior career*
YearsTeamApps(Gls)
1989–1997 Chelsea 113 (7)
1997–1999 Celtic 64 (20)
1999–2003 Derby County 73 (10)
2003 Dundee 2 (0)
2004 Preston North End 4 (0)
2004 Walsall 5 (0)
Total261(37)
International career
1992–1993 Scotland U21 [3] 7 (0)
1995–2003 Scotland 46 (3)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Craig William Burley (born 24 September 1971) is a Scottish former professional footballer and sports television pundit and co-commentator for ESPN.

Contents

As a player he was a midfielder from 1989 until 2004, notably playing in the Premier League for Chelsea and Derby County and in the Scottish Premier League for Celtic. He also played for Dundee and finished his career in the Football League with Preston North End and Walsall. He earned 46 caps for Scotland, scoring 3 goals.

Since retiring and working as a pundit amongst others he has worked for BBC Sport, ESPN and BT Sport.

Club career

Burley began his professional career with Chelsea in 1989, however he didn't make his debut until April 1991 when he came on as a substitute for Kerry Dixon in a 7–0 defeat against Nottingham Forest. [4] He made his first appearance in the newly formed Premier League on 5 December 1992 in a 2–1 away win at Tottenham Hotspur.

He went on to become a regular under Glenn Hoddle and played in the 1994 FA Cup final against Manchester United, picking up a runners-up medal following a 4–0 defeat. Two years later, Chelsea got to the FA Cup semi finals where they again faced Manchester United. With the score level at 1–1, Burley hit an errant back pass to set up David Beckham for what proved to be the winning goal. [5] Chelsea won the 1996–97 FA Cup; Burley was left out of the squad for the final but played in the semi-final against Wimbledon. [6] He was sold by Ruud Gullit on 25 July 1997 to Celtic for £2.5 million.

He made his Celtic debut on 3 August 1997 against Hibernian, and went on to make 64 appearances scoring 20 goals before transferring back to England with Derby County on 1 December 1999 for £3 million. [7] He played in four seasons for The Rams and suffered his first career relegation when the club lost their Premier League status at the end of the 2001–02 season.

On 12 September 2003 he signed with Dundee on a free transfer but only played twice in a two-month spell before being released and eventually signing for Preston North End in January 2004. By March he was a free agent again after only making four appearances for North End. He signed with Walsall on a free transfer for the remainder of the 2003–04 season and played five times before retiring at the end of the season.

In 1998, Burley won SFWA Footballer of the Year [8] and was shortlisted for the Scottish PFA Player of the Year. [9]

International career

After making his Scotland debut in 1995, Burley was also in the starting line-up for a fixture against Estonia in Tallinn in October 1996, but a scheduling dispute meant the home team did not adhere to a quickly-rearranged afternoon kick-off time, and the match was abandoned at kick-off with no caps awarded to the Scotland players; the fixture was re-arranged for the following February, but Burley was injured and did not take part. [10] [11]

Burley played at UEFA Euro 1996 and in the 1998 FIFA World Cup in France. At France '98 he scored the Scotland goal in a 1–1 draw with Norway in Bordeaux, latching on to a ball played forward by defender David Weir. [12] He was then sent off in the final group game against Morocco as Scotland were eliminated. [13] His goal against Norway was the last scored by a Scotland player at a major tournament, until Callum McGregor scored his goal against Croatia in the final group stage of UEFA Euro 2020, 23 years later (held in 2021).

Burley continued to play under Craig Brown until the end of the unsuccessful 2002 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign, [14] captaining the side in what proved to be his penultimate appearance. After suffering injury problems, Burley won a Scotland recall against Austria in 2003 under new manager Berti Vogts but then announced his international retirement. [14]

Media career

Burley previously worked as a pundit and commentator for ESPN UK, [15] Absolute Radio, BT Sport and BBC Radio 5 Live. He was ESPN's lead Scottish football co-commentator as well as fill-in for Chris Waddle on Premier League broadcasts and studio pundit for FA Cup. Burley worked the 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012 as a co-commentator for ITV Sport including the 2010 World Cup Final. He then worked the 2014 World Cup and Euro 2016 as a co-commentator and studio pundit for ABC and ESPN. He is currently a pundit on the programme ESPN FC .

Personal life

He is the nephew of former Scotland manager George Burley. [16] Burley is married to Sheryl (born 1971) and they have three children together. In 2013, Burley moved to the US state of Connecticut to work for ESPN. [17]

Honours

Chelsea

Celtic

Individual

Career statistics

International

Scotland [18]
YearAppsGoals
199550
1996100
199780
199863
199970
200040
200150
2002–
200310
Total463
Scores and results list Scotland's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Burley goal.
List of international goals scored by Craig Burley
No.DateVenueOpponentScoreResultCompetitionRef.
123 May 1998 Giants Stadium, East Rutherford Flag of Colombia.svg  Colombia 2–12–2 Friendly [19]
216 June 1998 Parc Lescure, Bordeaux Flag of Norway.svg  Norway 1–11–1 1998 FIFA World Cup [20]
314 October 1998 Pittodrie Stadium, Aberdeen Flag of the Faroe Islands.svg  Faroe Islands 1–02–1 UEFA Euro 2000 qualification [21]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kenny Dalglish</span> Scottish footballer and manager (born 1951)

Sir Kenneth Mathieson Dalglish is a Scottish former football player and manager. He is regarded as one of the greatest players of all time as well as one of Celtic's, Liverpool's and Britain's greatest ever players. During his career, he made 338 appearances for Celtic and 515 for Liverpool, playing as a forward, and earned a record 102 caps for the Scotland national team, scoring 30 goals, also a joint record. Dalglish won the Ballon d'Or Silver Award in 1983, the PFA Players' Player of the Year in 1983, and the FWA Footballer of the Year in 1979 and 1983. In 2009, FourFourTwo magazine named Dalglish the greatest striker in post-war British football, and he has been inducted into both the Scottish and English Football Halls of Fame. He is very highly regarded by Liverpool fans, who still affectionately refer to him as King Kenny, and in 2006 voted him top of the fans' poll "100 Players Who Shook the Kop".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Waddle</span> English footballer (born 1960)

Christopher Roland Waddle is an English former professional football player and manager. He had a spell as Burnley manager during the 1997–98 season, but has not returned to coaching since. Largely since retiring he has worked in the media for BBC Radio 5 Live as part of their Premier League and Champions League team. He currently works as a commentator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ian Wright</span> English footballer and pundit

Ian Edward Wright is an English television and radio personality and former professional footballer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Sutton</span> English football player and manager (born 1973)

Christopher Roy Sutton is an English former professional football player and manager. He later became a pundit, commentator and presenter of football coverage on television and radio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gordon Strachan</span> Scottish football coach and former player

Gordon David Strachan is a Scottish former football coach and player who is currently Technical Director of Dundee. He played for Dundee, Aberdeen, Manchester United, Leeds United and Coventry City, as well as the Scotland national team. He has since managed Coventry City, Southampton, Celtic, Middlesbrough and Scotland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dion Dublin</span> English footballer (born 1969)

Dion Dublin is an English former professional footballer, television presenter and pundit. He is a club director of Cambridge United.

Thomas Boyd is a Scottish former professional footballer. He played for Motherwell, Chelsea and Celtic, and appeared 72 times for Scotland, which means he is a member of the Scottish FA International Roll of Honour. Boyd now works in the hospitality area at Celtic Park.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ally McCoist</span> Scottish footballer, manager, and pundit

Alistair Murdoch McCoist is a Scottish former footballer who has since worked as a manager and TV pundit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andy Gray (footballer, born 1955)</span> Scottish football commentator

Andrew Mullen Gray is a Scottish football broadcaster and former player.

Nigel James Spackman is an English football manager, former professional footballer and sports television pundit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brian McClair</span> Scottish footballer (born 1963)

Brian John McClair is a Scottish football coach and former professional footballer. As a player, he was a forward from 1980 to 1998, notable for his near 11-year spell at Manchester United where he won 14 trophies including four Premier League titles, two FA Cups and the European Cup Winners' Cup.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Lambert</span> Scottish footballer and manager (born 1969)

Paul Lambert is a Scottish professional football manager and former player, who was most recently the manager of Ipswich Town.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andy Townsend</span> Irish footballer

Andrew David Townsend is a former professional footballer and sports co-commentator for Premier League Productions and CBS Sports.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pat Nevin</span> Scottish footballer (born 1963)

Patrick Kevin Francis Michael Nevin is a Scottish former professional footballer who played as a winger. In a twenty-year career, he appeared for Clyde, Chelsea, Everton, Tranmere Rovers, Kilmarnock and Motherwell. He won 28 caps for Scotland, scattered across a ten-year international career, and was selected for the UEFA Euro 1992 finals squad. Since retiring as a player, Nevin has worked as a chief executive of Motherwell and as a football writer and broadcaster.

Anthony Robert Dorigo is an Australian former professional footballer, sports pundit and co-commentator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dmitri Kharine</span> Russian footballer

Dmitri Viktorovich Kharine is a Russian football coach and former professional footballer, who is goalkeeping coach of National League South side Hemel Hempstead Town.

Robin "Robbie" Mustoe is an English former professional footballer who now works as a commentator for NBC Sports.

Kevin William Gallacher is a Scottish football pundit and co-commentator, and former professional player.

Ian Darke is an English association football and boxing commentator who currently works for ESPN and TNT Sports. Darke was previously one of Sky's "Big Four" football commentators alongside Martin Tyler, Alan Parry and Rob Hawthorne. He was also the main commentator for Sky's big boxing fights and along with Jim Watt, covered some of the biggest fights involving British boxers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Billy Gilmour</span> Scottish footballer (born 2001)

Billy John Gilmour is a Scottish professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for Serie A club Napoli and the Scotland national team.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Craig Burley". Barry Hugman's Footballers. Retrieved 6 March 2021.
  2. ↑ "Craig Burley: Overview". Premier League. Retrieved 6 March 2021.
  3. ↑ "Craig Burley". fitbastats.com. Retrieved 11 October 2012.
  4. ↑ "Sorry, the page was not found". www.sporting-heroes.net.
  5. ↑ "United's five minutes of fury". The Independent . 1 April 1996. Retrieved 21 October 2012.
  6. ↑ "Football: Zola sorcery dazzles Dons". The Independent. 13 April 1997. Retrieved 7 February 2017.
  7. ↑ Fowler, Craig (27 April 2017). "Craig Burley: Celtic sold me to sign Rafael Scheidt". The Scotsman. Retrieved 27 April 2017.
  8. ↑ "Burley lands award in Celtic clean sweep" . The Scotsman . 8 May 1997. Retrieved 26 April 2023– via British Newspaper Archive.
  9. ↑ "McNamara takes award" . Aberdeen Evening Express . 27 April 1998. Retrieved 26 April 2023– via British Newspaper Archive.
  10. ↑ Brewin, John (10 October 2014). "One team in Tallinn: when Scotland kicked off against nobody – and still didn't win". FourFourTwo . Retrieved 14 October 2019.
  11. ↑ Alan Brown and Gabriele Tossani (13 December 2018). "Scotland - International Matches 1996-2001". RSSSF . Retrieved 14 October 2019.
  12. ↑ Burley move pays off for Scotland, Sports Illustrated , 26 September 1998.
  13. ↑ Good news, bad news, Sports Illustrated, 23 September 1998.
  14. 1 2 Burley quits Scotland, The Daily Telegraph , 13 May 2003.
  15. ↑ Former panto star Alison Douglas to host new SPL coverage [ permanent dead link ], "Daily Record", 29 July 2009.
  16. ↑ Guardian Staff (17 November 2009). "Some Scotland players 'too thick' to understand tactics, says Craig Burley". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 January 2021.
  17. ↑ Clark, Chris (26 March 2015). "An Interview with Craig Burley". footballpink.net. Archived from the original on 16 August 2017. Retrieved 29 April 2017.
  18. ↑ Craig Burley at the Scottish Football Association
  19. ↑ "Colombia vs. Scotland". National-football-teams.com. Retrieved 29 April 2024.
  20. ↑ "Scotland vs. Norway". National-football-teams.com. Retrieved 29 April 2024.
  21. ↑ "Scotland vs. Faroe Islands". National-football-teams.com. Retrieved 29 April 2024.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.