Robert Douglas (footballer)

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Personal information
Rab Douglas
Full name	Robert James Douglas
Date of birth	April 24, 1972 (1972-04-24) (age 36)
Place of birth	Lanark, Scotland
Height	1.95 m (6 ft 5 in)
Playing position	Goalkeeper
Club information
Current club	Free Agent
Senior clubs¹
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1993-1997 1997-2000 2000-2005 2005-2008 2007 2007-2008 2008	Livingston Dundee Celtic Leicester City → Millwall (loan) → Wycombe Wanderers (loan) → Plymouth Argyle (loan)	001 (0) 119 (0) 108 (0) 032 (0) 007 (0) 003 (0) 001 (0)
National team²
2002-2005	Scotland	019 (0)
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 19:20, 31 December 2007 (UTC). ² National team caps and goals correct as of 19:20, 31 December 2007 (UTC). * Appearances (Goals)

Robert James "Rab" Douglas (born 24 April 1972 in Lanark) is a Scottish footballer currently a free agent having been released by Leicester City. He is a goalkeeper and is also a former Scotland international. As a boy, Douglas was a Motherwell supporter.

1 Career
- 1.1 Celtic
- 1.2 Leicester and beyond
2 International
3 Honours
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Career

[edit] Celtic

Douglas, formerly of Dundee F.C., joined Celtic F.C. in 2000, going on to gain over 100 appearances for the club, and was a key part of the team that reached the 2003 UEFA Cup Final. He was also considered a key player in Celtic's Scottish Premier League domestic title wins in 2000/01 and 2001/02.

However, during the 2004/05 season he faced stiff competition from youngster David Marshall and Magnus Hedman and at the end of the season was told by Celtic's then manager, Martin O'Neill, that he would not be first choice for next season. Douglas decided that he wanted to test himself in England, rather than sit on the bench, and joined Leicester City on a free transfer.

While he was considered a good goalkeeper by many fans at Dundee, the same could not be said for his time at Celtic as he had many howlers that gifted the opposing team goals, particularly against Rangers F.C..

[edit] Leicester and beyond

His performances have been erratic for Leicester, with inconsistency between good and poor performances. Among the fans he has been labeled either 'Rab C. Nesbitt' or 'The Brickie', the former partially due to his appearance.

His future at the Walkers Stadium was under threat after being replaced late in the 2005/06 season by Paul Henderson and promising performances by former youth academy goalkeeper Conrad Logan. Therefore, on June 7, 2007, Rab was placed on the transfer list alongside Mark de Vries and Alan Maybury.^[1] Douglas was handed a trial spell at Motherwell on 21 August,^[2] but was unable to agree a deal with the club.^[3]

On September 14, Douglas joined Millwall on an emergency 4 week loan,^[4] making his debut against Walsall, which the club lost 2-1.^[5]

On 23 October 2007 he joined Wycombe Wanderers on a 3 month loan deal.^[6] He made three appearances for Wycombe, in games when regular goalkeeper Frank Fielding was unavailable.

On 14 March 2008, Douglas joined Plymouth Argyle on a 1 week emergency loan as cover for the suspended Luke McCormick.^[7] On May 15, he was released by Leicester as his contract was close to expiring and he wasn't going to be offered a new deal.^[8]

[edit] International

Douglas was a regular for Scotland from 2002. However, after a 6-0 loss to Holland in Amsterdam, in a 2003 playoff for qualification to Euro 2004, for which he was largely blamed - including an incident where he was photographed having closed his eyes when one of the goals was allowed in - Douglas lost his position as first team goalkeeper.

It was a night from which his Scotland career never really recovered and he played just once more under Berti Vogts, against Wales, in a 4-0 defeat. He was recalled to the Scotland squad in 2005 under manager Walter Smith where he played against Italy in a 2006 World Cup qualifier, but was taken off injured in the 38th minute.

His last appearance for Scotland was a friendly match in August 2005, where he came on as a second half substitute against Austria, which ended in a 2-2 draw.^[9]