Derek Ferguson (born 31 July 1967) is a Scottish former professional footballer and manager. A creative midfield player, Ferguson is best remembered for his time with Rangers and Heart of Midlothian. He also played for

Dundee Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

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 ...

Dunfermline Athletic Dunfermline Athletic Football Club is a Scottish football club based in the city of Dunfermline, Fife. Founded in 1885, the club currently play in Scottish League One after being relegated from the 2021–22 Scottish Championship. Dunfermline ...

Portadown Portadown () is a town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. The town sits on the River Bann in the north of the county, about southwest of Belfast. It is in the Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council area and had a population of a ...

Partick Thistle Partick Thistle Football Club are a professional association football, football club from Glasgow, Scotland. Despite their name, the club are based at Firhill Stadium in the Maryhill area of the city, and have not played in Partick since 1908. ...

, Adelaide Force, Ross County,

Clydebank Clydebank ( gd, Bruach Chluaidh) is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland. Situated on the north bank of the River Clyde, it borders the village of Old Kilpatrick (with Bowling, West Dunbartonshire, Bowling and Milton, West Dunbartonshire, Mil ...

Alloa Athletic Alloa Athletic Football Club is a Scottish association football semi-professional club based in the town of Alloa, Clackmannanshire. Formed as Alloa in 1880, the football club shortly changed its name to Alloa Association, and then to Alloa Ath ...

Hamilton Academical Hamilton Academical Football Club, often known as Hamilton Accies, or The Accies, is a Scottish association football, football club from Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Hamilton, South Lanarkshire who currently compete in the Scottish Championshi ...

Raith Rovers Raith Rovers Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the town of Kirkcaldy, Fife. The club was founded in 1883 and currently competes in the Scottish Championship as a member of the Scottish Professional Football Leag ...

and made two appearances 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 ...

Playing career

Club

Ferguson joined his first senior club, Rangers, from Gartcosh United in 1982. He enjoyed an early experience of first team involvement when picked to play in

Tom Forsyth Thomas Forsyth (23 January 1949 – 14 August 2020) was a Scottish football player and coach. Forsyth played as a defender for Motherwell, Rangers and Scotland. Playing career Club Forsyth started his career at junior club Stonehouse Viol ...

's testimonial match in 1983, aged only 15. He made his competitive debut in the 1983–84 season aged 16 years, 24 days (which remains a club record) and within a year became a first team regular at Ibrox. He showed his early promise to a wide audience with his performances alongside fellow young midfielder

Ian Durrant Ian Durrant (born 29 October 1966) is a Scottish professional football coach and former player who is currently a first team coach at East Kilbride. During his playing career, Durrant played as a midfielder for Rangers for 13 years and was part ...

in the

Scottish League Cup The Scottish League Cup (also known as the Viaplay Cup for sponsorship reasons) is a football competition open to all Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) clubs. First held in 1946–47, it is the oldest national League Cup in existen ...

finals of

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal ente ...

(in which he was named man of the match) and

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, k ...

. However, over the next couple of seasons Ferguson gradually fell out of favour at Ibrox, a tempestuous relationship with manager

Graeme Souness Graeme James Souness (; born 6 May 1953) is a Scottish former professional football player and manager, and current TV pundit. A midfielder, Souness was the captain of the successful Liverpool team of the early 1980s, player-manager of Ranger ...

preventing him from developing as expected; Ian Ferguson (no relation) and veteran

Ray Wilkins Ray may refer to: Fish * Ray (fish), any cartilaginous fish of the superorder Batoidea * Ray (fish fin anatomy), a bony or horny spine on a fin Science and mathematics * Ray (geometry), half of a line proceeding from an initial point * Ray (gra ...

were often preferred in the position. He also suffered from injuries, including a recurring dislocated shoulder. In 1989–90 he was loaned to

and it became clear his future was not to be at Rangers, although he was very reluctant to leave the club. He played 148 times in all competitions for Rangers, scoring 8 goals. In August 1990, Heart of Midlothian spent a then club record £750,000 to take Ferguson to Tynecastle. He became a mainstay in the Hearts team over the next three seasons, including 1991–92 when they finished league runners-up. His good performances earned him a move to

, with manager

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 ...

(his former captain at Rangers) signing him in a part-exchange deal which saw John Colquhoun return to Hearts. After two seasons on

Wearside Wearside () is a built-up area in both Tyne and Wear and County Durham, Northern England. It is named after the River Wear which flows through it and traditionally all in the County of Durham. In the 2011 census, its official name was the Sunder ...

, Ferguson moved back to Scotland when

paid Sunderland £250,000 for his services in 1995. He spent three years with the ''Bairns'' before spending a single season ( 1998–99) with

, brief period with

in the Irish League during the 1999–00 season and a month with

. Ferguson next had a short spell in Australian soccer with Adelaide Force before returning to Scotland to play for a succession of lower league clubs, namely Ross County,

(scoring once against future club Hamilton),

and finally

International

His early performances and potential ensured he was fast-tracked into the Scottish international squad in 1988. Ferguson gained two

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 ...

during this period, in matches against

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

and

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

. He also featured five times for the Under-21s and once for the B-team.

Managerial career

While at Clydebank he was briefly appointed player-manager, while he has also served as a coach at

Albion Rovers Albion Rovers Football Club is a semi-professional football team from Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire, Scotland. They are members of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) and play in Scottish League Two, the fourth tier of the Scotti ...

before becoming Stranraer's assistant manager as part of a new management team at Stair Park with Gerry Britton. When Britton left his post as manager for the vacant assistant manager role at

, Ferguson was put in place as caretaker manager before being handed a contract as manager until the end of the 2008–09 season. Although having a bright start as manager, relations between the club and Ferguson had become strained due to his unrealistic expectations for financial support and the club's on-field performances, which led to him leaving the club after an 8–2 home defeat to

Stirling Albion Stirling Albion Football Club is a Scottish football club based in the city of Stirling. The club was founded in 1945 following the demise of King's Park after World War II. The club currently competes in Scottish League Two as a member of the ...

., one of the worst home defeats in the club's history. After leaving Stranraer he had a short spell as manager of junior outfit

Glenafton Athletic Glenafton Athletic Football Club is a Scottish football club, based in New Cumnock, Ayrshire. Members of the Scottish Junior Football Association, they play in the West of Scotland Football League. The club has won the Scottish Junior Cup twice ...

. On 28 October 2010, Ferguson was named as assistant manager of

Dumbarton Dumbarton (; also sco, Dumbairton; ) is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland, on the north bank of the River Clyde where the River Leven flows into the Clyde estuary. In 2006, it had an estimated population of 19,990. Dumbarton was the ca ...

, however it was announced on 3 November 2010 that he will be unable to fill that role due to media commitments.

Media career

Since leaving

, Ferguson has appeared regularly for

BBC Radio Scotland BBC Radio Scotland is a Scottish radio network owned and operated by BBC Scotland, a division of the BBC. It broadcasts a wide variety of programmes. It replaced the Scottish BBC Radio 4 opt-out service of the same name from 23 November 197 ...

as a football pundit. His work with

BBC Scotland BBC Scotland (Scottish Gaelic: ''BBC Alba'') is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcaster in Scotland. It is one of the four BBC national regions, together with the BBC English Regions, BBC Cymru Wales and BBC Northern Ireland. I ...

was cited as his reason for not accepting the role of assistant manager at

Personal life

Ferguson is the elder brother of

Barry Ferguson Barry Ferguson (born 2 February 1978) is a Scottish football coach, former player and pundit who was most recently the manager of Alloa Athletic. Ferguson spent most of his playing career at Rangers, in two spells either side of a £7.5 mil ...

, who also played for Rangers and Scotland in the same position. The siblings played against each other on three occasions during the 1998–99 season while Derek was with Dunfermline, with 20-year-old Barry scoring at

East End Park East End Park, currently named KDM Group East End Park for sponsorship purposes, is a football stadium situated in Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland with a seating capacity of . The stadium plays host to the home matches of Scottish Championship sid ...

and 31-year-old Derek making his last appearance at Ibrox. His son

Lewis Lewis may refer to: Names * Lewis (given name), including a list of people with the given name * Lewis (surname), including a list of people with the surname Music * Lewis (musician), Canadian singer * "Lewis (Mistreated)", a song by Radiohead ...

is also a professional footballer. He signed for

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...

in 2018, and scored the winning goal in a

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

semi-final against Rangers in October of that year. Ferguson's baby daughter Lauren died from a heart defect at seven weeks of age in 1993; her organs were removed by medical staff at

Yorkhill Hospital The West Glasgow Ambulatory Care Hospital is a healthcare facility in Yorkhill, Glasgow. The new ambulatory care facility was created in December 2015 to house the remaining outpatient services and the minor injury unit previously housed at the W ...

without parental consent, an issue which inquiries found had affected hundreds of families in the area at the time. His autobiography, ''Big Brother'', written with

Bill Leckie Bill Leckie is a Scottish sports journalist and broadcaster who currently writes for the Scottish edition of '' The Sun'' newspaper. Leckie also does commentary on Scottish Football League matches for BBC Radio Scotland and makes regular cont ...

, was published in 2006.

Honours

;Rangers *

Scottish Premier Division The Scottish Football League Premier Division was, from 1975 until 1998, the top division of the Scottish Football League and the entire Scottish football league system. It lay above the Scottish Football League First, Second and (from 1994) Th ...

: (2) 1986–87, 1988–89Did not make minimum 10 appearances in 1989–90 title win *

: (3) 1986–87, 1987–88, 1988–89

Notes

References

External links

*
Profile
at sporting-heroes.net

at londonhearts.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Ferguson, Derek 1967 births Living people Footballers from North Lanarkshire Scottish footballers Rangers F.C. players Dundee F.C. players Heart of Midlothian F.C. players Sunderland A.F.C. players Falkirk F.C. players Dunfermline Athletic F.C. players Portadown F.C. players NIFL Premiership players Partick Thistle F.C. players Adelaide City FC players Ross County F.C. players Clydebank F.C. (1965) players Alloa Athletic F.C. players Hamilton Academical F.C. players Raith Rovers F.C. players Scottish Football League players Scottish Premier League players English Football League players National Soccer League (Australia) players Scottish football managers Clydebank F.C. (1965) managers Stranraer F.C. managers Glenafton Athletic F.C. managers Scottish Football League managers Scottish expatriate footballers Expatriate soccer players in Australia Scottish expatriate sportspeople in Australia Scotland international footballers Scotland under-21 international footballers Scotland B international footballers Association football midfielders Scotland youth international footballers