Alexander MacDonald (born 14 April 1990) is a professional

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 plays as a winger for Gillingham. His previous clubs include

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River Bru ...

Falkirk Falkirk ( gd, An Eaglais Bhreac, sco, Fawkirk) is a large town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland, historically within the county of Stirlingshire. It lies in the Forth Valley, northwest of Edinburgh and northeast of Glasgow. Falkirk had a ...

Inverness Caledonian Thistle Inverness Caledonian Thistle Football Club, commonly known as Caley Thistle, is a professional football club based in Inverness, Scotland. The team currently competes in the Scottish Championship, the second tier of the Scottish Professional F ...

Plymouth Argyle Plymouth Argyle Football Club is a professional football club based in the city of Plymouth, Devon, England. As of the 2021–22 season, the team are competing in League One, the third tier of English football. They have played at Home Park, ...

Burton Albion Burton Albion Football Club is a professional association football club in the town of Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, England. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The club moved its home groun ...

Oxford United Oxford United Football Club is a professional football club in the city of Oxford, England. The team plays in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The chairman is Grant Ferguson, the manager is Karl Robinson and t ...

and

Mansfield Town Mansfield Town Football Club is a professional football club based in the town of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, England. The team competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed 'The Stags', they play in a blue and ...

. Born in England, he has represented Scotland at under-19 and under-21 level.

Club career

Youth career

MacDonald started his career in the youth team at

and signed a two-year scholarship in 2006, after previously having a trial at

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

. He impressed for the youth team and was voted Youth Team Player of the Year for the 2007–08 season, being rewarded with a professional contract in the summer of 2008.

Burnley

MacDonald made his debut on 26 April 2008, coming on as a substitute for

Wade Elliott Wade Patrick Elliott (born 14 December 1978) is an English former professional footballer who is currently head coach of EFL League One club Cheltenham Town. He played mainly as a right midfielder but could also play as a central midfielder. El ...

in the

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

3–3 draw against Cardiff City in the final home game of the season. He also featured a week later in the final game of the season, a 5–0 defeat to

Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition building ...

. In the 2008–09 season he featured mainly in the reserve side; however, he did make six appearances as a substitute for the first team, with his first coming in a 3–2 away win over

Sheffield United Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history of cutlery production. The team have played home games at ...

. He also featured heavily in the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

, making three appearances in the run to the sixth round, which came to an end in a 3–0 defeat against

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

. When Burnley got promoted to the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

in May 2009 via the play-offs, MacDonald struggled to fight for a place in the team and joined

Scottish Premier League The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the top level league competition for professional football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football' ...

side

on a six-month loan in July. He made his debut for the Bairns on 16 July 2009 in the

Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

second qualifying round tie first leg tie against

FC Vaduz FC may refer to: Businesses, organisations, and schools * Fergusson College, a science and arts college in Pune, India * Finncomm Airlines (IATA code) * FranklinCovey company, NYSE stock symbol FC * Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force in Pakis ...

Liechtenstein Liechtenstein (), officially the Principality of Liechtenstein (german: link=no, Fürstentum Liechtenstein), is a German-speaking microstate located in the Alps between Austria and Switzerland. Liechtenstein is a semi-constitutional monarchy ...

, starting the match in a 1–0 win. He made thirteen appearances in all competitions during his stay with the Scottish club, scoring no goals before returning to

Turf Moor Turf Moor is an association football stadium in Burnley, Lancashire, England, which has been the home of Burnley F.C. since 1883. This unbroken service makes Turf Moor the second-longest continuously used ground in English professional football ...

in January 2010. He suffered a double hernia injury towards the end of the season and did not feature for the rest of the campaign. He suffered greater troubles when his mother died in March, but he continued to train as usual with the first team as the Clarets were relegated from the Premier League. MacDonald thought he would feature more in the 2010–11 season under

Brian Laws Brian Laws (born 14 October 1961) is an English former professional footballer and manager. Playing as a defender, Laws made over 100 appearances for each of Burnley, Middlesbrough, and Nottingham Forest. In 1994, Laws became player-manager of ...

in the Championship, but he didn't find himself in contention for the first team and was again sent on loan again to Scotland in January 2010, joining SPL side

until the end of the season. He made his first appearance for

Terry Butcher Terry Ian Butcher (born 28 December 1958) is an English football manager and former player. He works as an academy coach for Ipswich Town. During his playing career as a defender, Butcher captained the England national team, winning 77 caps ...

's side on 5 February 2011, in 5–1 victory over

Morton Morton may refer to: People * Morton (surname) * Morton (given name) Fictional * Morton Koopa, Jr., a character and boss in ''Super Mario Bros. 3'' * A character in the ''Charlie and Lola'' franchise * A character in the 2008 film '' Horton H ...

in the

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Adam Rooney Adam Christopher David Rooney (born 21 April 1988) is an Irish professional footballer who plays as a striker for club Brackley Town. He previously played for Stoke City, spent spells on loan at Yeovil Town, Chesterfield and Bury, was a re ...

. He scored his first goal for the club 5 March 2011, scoring with his first touch in a 3–0 win over

Motherwell Motherwell ( sco, Mitherwall, gd, Tobar na Màthar) is a town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Historically in the parish of Dalziel and part of Lanarks ...

in the SPL after coming on as a substitute. After a very impressive pre-season in 2011, MacDonald finally broke back into the

team on 20 August 2011, coming on as a late substitute for

Ross Wallace Ross Wallace (born 23 May 1985) is a Scottish former professional footballer who played as a winger. He has previously played for Celtic, Sunderland, Preston North End, Burnley, Sheffield Wednesday, Fleetwood Town, and once played in a full ...

in a 1–1 draw against Cardiff City. On 31 January 2012, he was loaned to

League Two The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football Lea ...

side

on an emergency loan until 6 March. MacDonald extended his loan with the club until the end of the campaign on 28 February. On 31 August 2012, MacDonald re-signed for Plymouth Argyle until 6 October on an emergency loan. On 1 October, after his loan spell was extended, Alex expressed his liking for the club and the city by saying that he wanted a permanent move to Plymouth. On 4 December, he returned to Burnley from his loan spell. On 31 January 2013, he joined League Two side

on an initial one-month loan.

Burton Albion

After his release from Burnley in May 2013, MacDonald joined Burton on a two-year contract.

Oxford United

On 2 February 2015, MacDonald joined

on a two-and-a-half-year contract. On 31 January 2017, he left Oxford by mutual consent. While with Oxford, he scored 12 goals in 97 appearances, 9 of them in league matches

Mansfield Town

MacDonald signed for

on 31 January 2017. He was released by Mansfield at the end of the 2019–20 season.

Gillingham

MacDonald signed for

EFL League One The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...

side Gillingham on 14 August 2020. He made his debut for the

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

side on 5 September 2020 in a 1–0 win over

Southend United Southend United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England. As of the 2022–23 season, the team competes in the National League, the fifth tier of English football. Southend are known as ...

in the first round of the

EFL Cup The EFL Cup (referred to historically, and colloquially, as the League Cup), currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual knockout competition and major trophy in men's domestic football in England. Organised by the ...

. Following the departure of manager Steve Evans from the club on 9 January 2022, he was appointed to assist caretaker manager Steve Lovell.

International career

MacDonald was born in England, but qualified to play for Scotland through his father. He scored in his second appearance for the under-19s against

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...

on 20 October 2008 and scored two more against

San Marino San Marino (, ), officially the Republic of San Marino ( it, Repubblica di San Marino; ), also known as the Most Serene Republic of San Marino ( it, Serenissima Repubblica di San Marino, links=no), is the fifth-smallest country in the world an ...

a couple of days later. In his fifth match for the team, against

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

on 25 February 2009, MacDonald captained the side and scored twice. In total, he received eight

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 ...

at under-19 level and scored seven goals. He made his under-21 debut on 17 November 2010 against

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

and scored his first goal for the team in his fourth appearance, against

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

. He dedicated the goal to his mother, Janette, who died 18 months earlier at the age of 40.

Career statistics

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Macdonald, Alex 1990 births Living people Footballers from Warrington Scottish footballers Scotland youth international footballers Scotland under-21 international footballers English people of Scottish descent Association football forwards Burnley F.C. players Falkirk F.C. players Inverness Caledonian Thistle F.C. players Plymouth Argyle F.C. players Burton Albion F.C. players Oxford United F.C. players Mansfield Town F.C. players Gillingham F.C. players English Football League players Scottish Premier League players