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Vote: Who are the best players to play in Scotland in the last 30 years?

Many top stars have made their name in Scottish football over the years

By Ned BarrPublished 7 months ago 4 min read

Many top stars have played in Scottish football over the years, from Champions League winners to Ballon D'Or nominees.

Some have arrived in the top flight with already bulging trophy cabinets and reputations, many have made their name in Scotland, while others have become legendary players after leaving for bigger leagues in multi-million pound deals.

In the 30-years that have passed since the 1992-93 season, hundreds of great players have graced the Scottish Premier Division, SPL and Scottish Premiership.

We are asking fans of Celtic, Rangers, Aberdeen, Hearts, Hibs and the rest to vote for their top 10 players in this time to see who is really the best players to grace our shores in the last three decades.

Players voted as your number 1 pick will get 10 points, second votes will get 9 points, third choices will get 8 points, fourth picks will get 7 points, players in fifth will get 6 points and sixth to ten will all get five points each to see who makes the top list.

Here we look at some of the potential nominees:

Trophy winners

Scott Brown: Celtic's midfield general won 23 trophies and captained the Hoops to 9 in a row and a quadruple treble.

Richard Gough: The man who skippered Rangers for the majority of their 9 in a row run won a total of 19 trophies in Scotland.

Callum McGregor: The current Hoops captain has won 20 trophies so far and skippered the Hoops to a treble last year.

Goal Scorers

Ally McCoist: Scottish football's second highest scorer of all time found the back of the net 355 times in 581 games for Rangers, winning 20 trophies in the process.

Henrik Larsson: The Swedish star still known as the King of Kings scored 242 goals in 315 games for the Hoops and is still affectionatly known as the 'King of Kings'.

Kris Boyd: The top scorer of the SPL era scored 133 goals for Kilmarnock and another 128 for Rangers.

Kyogo Furuhashi: Celtic's Japanese Bhoy has 62 goals in 108 games for the Hoops, and he's not finished there.

Alfredo Morelos: The marmite Colombian is now Rangers' top scorer in European competitions.

Scotland stars

John McGinn: Meatball McGinn starred in the top flight for Hibernian and St Mirren before moving to Aston Villa and becoming a Tartan Army legend.

James McFadden: Former Motherwell forward was a talisman for the national team in his day, scoring winning goals against the Netherlands and France.

Andy Robertson: The Liverpool defender who has captained Scotland to back-to-back Euros played for Dundee United once upon a time.

John Collins: Evergreen former Celtic and Hibs star scored against Brazil at the World Cup in 1998.

Big name signings

Brian Laudrup: Danish winger won the 1992 European Championships and was part of AC Milan's Champions League winning squad before moving to Ibrox

Paul Gascoigne: England's stand out star from Italia 90 joined the Gers in a big money move from Lazio.

Frank Suazee: Champions League winning France international rocked up at Hibs and became a club legend.

Paolo Di Canio: The man signed by Milan to replace Laudrup would eventually follow him to Scotland.

Ronald De Boer: De Boer helped Ajax win the Champions League and played for Barcelona before signing for Rangers alongside his brother Frank.

Future superstars

Virgil Van Dijk: The big defender was a snip at £2m for Celtic before going on to become the world's most expensive defender, Champions League winner, Netherlands captain and finished 2nd in the Ballon D'or to Lionel Messi.

Rino Gattusso: Joined Rangers as a raw youngster, but became a Champions League and World Cup winner after leaving.

Giovanni van Bronckhorst: Classy midfielder played for Arsenal and Barcelona after leaving Rangers and captained Netherlands to a World Cup final

Mikel Arteta: The current Arsenal manager had a short spell at Rangers under Alex McLeish.

Captain Marvels

Barry Ferguson: Handed the Rangers captaincy at the age of 22 and made over 400 appearances in two spells at the club.

Paul McStay: The 'Maestro' made just under 700 appearances for the Hoops and was named in their greatest ever 11 in 2002.

James Tavernier: A leader for Rangers during their rise from the lower divisions to Premiership champions and Europa League finalists.

Neil Lennon: Only man ever to win a treble as player and manager in Scottish football history.

Paul Lambert: Won a Champions League title with Borussia Dortmund and captained Celtic to the UEFA Cup final.

Homegrown heroes

Kieran Tierney: Former Celtic fan favourite now plays in Spain and is a key man in Steve Clarke's Scotland side.

James Forrest: One club man has scored in 15 consecutive seasons for Celtic and has won 23 trophies.

Ian Durrant: Infamous injury curtailed the career of one of the most naturally gifted midfielders seen in Scotland.

John Robertson: Hearts legend and Tynecastle club's top scorer of all time with 290 goals in maroon.

International stars

Stillian Petrov: Bulgaria captain was a hero back in his homeland and went on to star for Aston Villa.

Lubo Moravcick: Known as a 'gift from god' the Slovakian was pretty much unknown when he arrived in Scotland, but left a legend.

Arthur Numan: Brilliant left-back for Rangers and the Netherlands.

Rudi Skacel: Cult hero with the Jambos as Scottish Cup heroics.

Jorge Albertz: Known as the 'hammer' the German midfielder loved an Old Firm goal and it still a hero to Rangers fans.

Shunsuke Nakamura: Free kick expert was the first of Celtic's Japanese imports, famously became the first player from Japan to score in the Champions League with two stunning free-kicks against Man Utd.

Victor Wanyama: Kenya star scored against Barcelona in famous 2-1 win over Messi and co before helping Spurs to a Champions League final

British heroes

Chris Sutton:

Steven Davis:

John Hartson:

Mark Hateley:

Goalkeepers

Andy Goram:

Artur Boruc:

Fraser Forster:

Allan McGregor:

Craig Gordon:

Let us know your picks in the comments below and the full list will be announced next week.

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Comments (1)

  • Ewan Hebson7 months ago

    1. Henrik Larsson 2. Brian Laudrup 3. Lubo Moravcik 4. Ronald De Boer 5. Takis Fyssas 6. Rudi Skacel 7. Paul Gascoigne 8. Ally McCoist 9. Thomas Flögel 10. Andy Robertson

NBWritten by Ned Barr

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