Alan James McLaren (born 4 January 1971, in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

) is a Scottish former

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

, who played for Heart of Midlothian and Rangers.

Football career

Club

McLaren started his career with Hearts in 1987 and made over 180 appearances for the Tynecastle club. He moved to Rangers in October 1994 in a £2m part-exchange deal, with Dave McPherson moving the opposite direction. He made his debut against

Old Firm The Old Firm is the collective name for the Scottish football clubs Celtic and Rangers, which are both based in Glasgow. The two clubs are by far the most successful and popular in Scotland, and the rivalry between them has become deeply em ...

rivals

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

on 30 October 1994 in a 3–1 win at

Hampden Park Hampden Park (Scottish Gaelic: ''Pàirc Hampden''), often referred to as Hampden, is a football stadium in the Mount Florida area of Glasgow, Scotland. The -capacity venue serves as the national stadium of football in Scotland. It is the no ...

. He was forced to retire from football in 1998, aged 27, due to injury. His final appearance for Rangers was as captain in a 1–0 win over

Dundee United Dundee United Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the city of Dundee. The club name is usually abbreviated to Dundee United. Formed in 1909, originally as Dundee Hibernian, the club changed to the present name in 1 ...

in which Rangers secured their 9th title in row. On 2 March 1999, Rangers played English club

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

in a

testimonial match A testimonial match or testimonial game, often referred to simply as a testimonial, is a practice in some sports, particularly in association football in the United Kingdom and South America, where a club has a match to honour a player for servic ...

for McLaren at Ibrox in front of 49,468 spectators. McLaren scored a penalty in a 4–4 draw.

International

McLaren also won 24

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

for

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. He was named in the squad for

UEFA Euro 1992 The 1992 UEFA European Football Championship was hosted by Sweden between 10 and 26 June 1992. It was the ninth UEFA European Championship, which is held every four years and supported by UEFA. Denmark won the 1992 championship, having qualifi ...

, but did not feature in any matches. He was forced to miss

UEFA Euro 1996 The 1996 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 96, was the 10th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by European nations and organised by UEFA. It took place in England from 8 to 30 ...

through injury, being replaced by

Derek Whyte Derek Whyte (born 31 August 1968) is a Scottish former footballer, who played for Celtic, Middlesbrough, Aberdeen and Partick Thistle. He also won twelve caps for Scotland during his 18-year playing career. He participated at Euro 1992, Euro 199 ...

in the squad.

Post football career

McLaren became an ambassador for charity

Football Aid Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

and a regular pundit on

Rangers TV Rangers TV is the official television channel of Scottish football club Rangers F.C. Initially launched in 2004 as a satellite and cable TV channel, it has operated online since 2009. History Setanta Sports Launched in 2004, the channel was in ...

References

External links

* * 1971 births Living people Heart of Midlothian F.C. players Footballers from Edinburgh Rangers F.C. players Scotland international footballers Scottish Football League players Scottish footballers UEFA Euro 1992 players Scotland under-21 international footballers Association football central defenders {{Scotland-footy-defender-1970s-stub