Craig Levein

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Craig Levein
Personal information
Full name Craig William Levein
Date of birth October 22, 1964 (1964-10-22) (age 43)
Place of birth    Dunfermline, Scotland
Height 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Playing position Defender (Retired)
Club information
Current club Dundee United (Manager/Director of Football)
Youth clubs
Lochore Welfare
Senior clubs1
Years Club App (Gls)*
1981–1983
1983–1997		 Cowdenbeath
Heart of Midlothian
Total		 060 0(0)
329 (15)
389 (15)   
National team
1990–1994 Scotland 016 0(0)
Teams managed
1997–2000
2000–2004
2004–2006
2006
2006–		 Cowdenbeath
Heart of Midlothian
Leicester City
Raith Rovers
Dundee United

1 Senior club appearances and goals
counted for the domestic league only.
* Appearances (Goals)

Craig William Levein (born 22 October 1964 in Dunfermline) is a Scottish former professional footballer and current football manager and Director of Football. Levein currently manages Scottish Premier League club Dundee United where he is also the Director of Football. During his playing career he played for Cowdenbeath, Heart of Midlothian and won 16 caps for the Scotland national team.

Contents

[edit] Playing career

As a youth, Levein attended Inverkeithing High School, where he was in the football team alongside another future Scottish international footballer, Gordon Durie. His early football career saw him turn out for Dalgety Bay, Leven Royals and Inverkeithing under-16s. At the age of 15, however, he gave up football for a year, only resuming when his brother, who played for junior club Lochore Welfare invited him to training there. Levein subsequently signed for Lochore and after trials with several senior clubs he finally joined Cowdenbeath in 1981.[1]

Levein quickly established himself in the first team at Central Park and soon became a target for larger clubs than Cowdenbeath. In 1983 he moved to Heart of Midlothian for a fee of £40,000 and soon found himself a regular place in the Hearts first team. Levein won the SPFA Young Player of the Year award in 1985 and 1986. He made his Scotland debut in March 1990, a 1-0 win against Argentina at Hampden Park and played well enough to earn a place in Scotland's 1990 World Cup squad.

His playing career was punctuated by two separate serious knee ligament injuries, which eventually forced him into early retirement in 1995. However, it was not just injuries that kept Levein from playing during his time at Hearts; he was once given a 12-game ban after punching, and breaking the nose of, Hearts teammate Graeme Hogg during a pre-season friendly against Raith Rovers.

[edit] Coaching and managerial career

After being forced into retirement as a player, Levein had coaching positions at Hearts and at Livingston. In November 1997 he was appointed as manager of Cowdenbeath and turned a struggling team into one that could challenge for promotion. Cowdenbeath were promoted in 2001, but Levein had left in December 2000 to take over as manager at Hearts.

His time in charge of Hearts was highly successful, where he guided them to third place in the SPL in two successive seasons and thus guided them into European competition. His impressive record in Scotland caught the attention of Leicester City who appointed him as manager on 19 October 2004.[2]

However after a poor start to the 2005-06 season, which left the club languishing third from bottom in the Championship relegation zone, he was sacked as manager on 25 January 2006.[3]

Levein was appointed as manager of Scottish Second Division club Raith Rovers on 5 September 2006, on a non-contract basis.[4] However, after Dundee United parted company with Craig Brewster, Levein left his non-contract role at Raith Rovers to take up the job at Tannadice. He was unveiled to the press on October 30, 2006.[5]

Levein guided United to four successive home victories, earning him 'Manager of the Month' for November 2006, later repeating the award in March 2007 and again in October 2007.

On 21 January 2008 he was appointed Director of Football at Dundee United, giving him a seat on the Board of Directors in addition to his existing responsibilities. Levein seems obsessed with signing Mark de Vries, having signed him at every club he's been at. Apart from Hearts, De Vries has had little effect.

[edit] Managerial record

After 2008-01-26 (League matches only):

Years Club Pld Won Drawn Lost Pts/game
1997–2000 Cowdenbeath 127 46 26 55 1.29
2000–2004 Hearts 170 74 41 55 1.55
2004–2006 Leicester City 72 20 26 26 1.19
2006 Raith Rovers 7 1 3 3 0.86
2006– Dundee United 72 27 22 23 1.43

[edit] Honours

[edit] Player

[edit] Hearts

1985-86
1985, 1986

[edit] Manager

[edit] Hearts

Dec 2001, Apr 2003

[edit] Dundee United

Nov 2006, Mar 2007, Oct 2007
2007-08

[edit] References

  1. ^ The Rampant Ballboy Interviews - Craig Levein, article from When the Sun Shines fanzine, reproduced by blue-brazil.co.uk. Retrieved on 1 November 2006
  2. ^ "Leicester appoint Levein as boss", BBC Sport website, 29 October, 2004. 
  3. ^ "Levein and Leicester part company", BBC Sport website, 25 January 2006. 
  4. ^ "Raith appoint Levein as manager", BBC Sport website, 5 September 2006. 
  5. ^ "Dundee Utd unveil Levein as boss", BBC Sport website, 30 October 2006. 

[edit] External links


Awards
Preceded by
John Robertson		 Scottish PFA Young Player of the Year
1985		 Succeeded by
Himself
Preceded by
Himself		 Scottish PFA Young Player of the Year
1986		 Succeeded by
Robert Fleck
v • d • e
Scotland squad - 1990 FIFA World Cup
1 Leighton • 2 McLeish • 3 Aitken • 4 Gough • 5 McStay • 6 Malpas • 7 Johnston • 8 Bett • 9 McCoist • 10 MacLeod • 11 Gillespie • 12 Goram • 13 Durie • 14 McInally • 15 Levein • 16 McCall • 17 McKimmie • 18 Collins • 19 McPherson • 20 McAllister • 21 Fleck • 22 Gunn • Coach: Roxburgh
 Flag of Scotland
v • d • e
Cowdenbeath F.C. – Managers

Paterson (????–??) • Duncan (1925–32) • Dougary (1934–38) • Dougary (1955–58) • Robertson (1964–67) • Matthew (1968–74) • Paton (1974) • McLindon (1974–76) • Connor (1974–76) • Wilson (1978–80) • Stanton (1980) • Rolland (1980–82) • Wilson (1982–84) • McCulloch (1984) • Clark (1984–85) • Craig (1985–87) • Campbell (1987) • Blackley (1987–??) • Brownlie (????–??) • Levein (1997–2000) • Cormack (2000) • Kirk (2000–02) • Wright (2002–04) • Baikie (2004–05) • Paatelainen (2005–06) • Welsh (2006) •
v • d • e
Heart of Midlothian F.C. – Managers

Fairley (1901–03) • Waugh (1903–08) • McGhee (1908–09) • McCartney (1910–19) • McCartney (1919–35) • Pratt (1935–37) • Moss (1937–40) • McLean (1941–51) • Walker (1951–66) • Harvey (1966–70) • Seith (1970–74) • Hagart (1974–77) • Ormond (1977–80) • Moncur (1980–81) • Ford (1981) • MacDonald (1982–90) • Jardine (1986–88) • Jordan (1990–93) • Clark (1993–94) • McLean (1994–95) • Jefferies (1995–2000) • Houston (2000) • Levein (2000–04) • Houston (2004) • Robertson (2004–05) • Burley (2005) • McGlynn (2005) • Rix (2005–06) • Ivanauskas (2006) • Malofeyev (2006) • Riabovas (2006) • Ivanauskas (2006–07) • Korobochka & Frail (2007–08) • Frail (2008) • Banks (2008–)
v • d • e
Leicester City F.C. – Managers

Clark (1896–97) • Johnson (1898–07) • Blessington (1907–09) • Aitken (1909–11) • Bartlett (1912–14) • Hodge (1919–26) • Orr (1926–32) • Hodge (1932–34) • Lochhead (1934–36) • Womack (1936–39) • Bromilow (1939–45) • Mather (1945–46) • Duncan (1946–49) • Bullock (1949–55) • Halliday (1955–58) • Gillies (1959–68) • O'Farrell (1968–71) • Bloomfield (1971–77) • McLintock (1977–78) • Wallace (1978–82) • Milne (1982–86) • Hamilton (1986–87) • Pleat (1987–91) • Little (1991–94) • McGhee (1994–95) • O'Neill (1995–00) • Taylor (2000–01) • Bassett (2001–02) • Adams (2002–04) • Levein (2004–06) • Kelly (2006–07) • Allen (2007) • Megson (2007) • Holloway (2007–08)
v • d • e
Raith Rovers F.C. – Managers

Herdman (1945–61) • Shaw (1961–62) • Conn (1963–64) • Cowie (1963–64) • Farm (1964–67) • Walker (1967–69) • Millar (1969–70) • Baxter (1970–71) • Farm (1971–74) • Paton (1974–75) • Matthew (1975–78) • W.McLean (1978–79) • Wallace (1979–83) • Wilson (1983–86) • Connor (1986–90) • Nicholl (1990–96) • Thomson (1996) • T.McLean (1996) • Munro (1996–97) • Nicholl (1997–99) • McVeigh (1999) • Hetherston (1999–2001) • Scott (2001–02) • Calderon (2002–04) • Anelka (2004) • Dalziel (2004–06) • Levein (2006) • McGlynn (2006–)
v • d • e
Dundee United F.C. – Managers

Reilly (1909–15) • Dainty (1915–17) • Reilly (1917–22) • O'Rourke (1922–23) • Brownlie (1923–31) • Reid (1931–34) • Brownlie (1934–36) • Greig (1936–38) • Brownlie/Irving (1938–39) • McKay (1939) • Allan (1939–40) • Cram (1941–44) • Littlejohn (1944) • McGillivray (1944–45) • MacFadyen (1945–54) • R Smith (1954–57) • Gallacher (1957) • Gray (1957–58) • A McCall (1958–59) • Kerr (1959–71) • J McLean (1971–93) • Golac (1993–95) • Kirkwood (1995–96) • T McLean (1996–98) • Sturrock (1998–2000) • A Smith (2000–02) • Hegarty (2002–03) • I McCall (2003–05) • Chisholm (2005–06) • Brewster (2006) • Levein (2006–)
v • d • e
Dundee United F.C. – current squad

1 Załuska • 2 Dillon • 4 Wilkie • 5 Dods • 7 Kerr • 8 Grainger • 9 Daly • 10 Hunt • 12 D. Robertson • 15 Conway • 16 Gomis • 17 Cameron • 18 Kenneth • 20 Buaben • 22 De Vries • 23 Swanson • 24 Kovačevič • 26 Goodwillie • 27 Watson • 28 Andreoni • 29 McCord • 30 Russell • 32 Milligan • 50 Smith • – S. Robertson • Manager: Levein