Gary Mackay (born 23 January 1964 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 made over 500 league appearances for Heart of Midlothian and also played for

Airdrieonians Airdrieonians Football Club is a Scottish professional football team in Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, who are members of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) and play in Scottish League One. They were formed in 2002 as Airdrie United ...

and the Scotland national team. After retiring as a player, he managed Airdrie for a year. Mackay is now an SFA–registered

agent Agent may refer to: Espionage, investigation, and law *, spies or intelligence officers * Law of agency, laws involving a person authorized to act on behalf of another ** Agent of record, a person with a contractual agreement with an insuranc ...

Career

Mackay played for Heart of Midlothian for most of his career, and he holds the record for the most competitive appearances for the club, with 640. Mackay won international recognition in the late 1980s, winning four caps for Scotland. His most significant act as a Scotland player was to score the winning goal in a

UEFA Euro 1988 qualifying This page describes the qualifying procedure for UEFA Euro 1988. Qualified teams Seedings Summary Tiebreakers If two or more teams finished level on points after completion of the group matches, the following tie-breakers were used t ...

match against

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...

Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and ha ...

.The goal of his life
''

Evening Herald ''The Herald'' is a nationwide mid-market tabloid newspaper headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, and published by Independent News & Media who are a subsidiary of Mediahuis. It is published Monday–Saturday. The newspaper was known as the ''Ev ...

'', 11 December 2008. Although this goal did not substantially benefit Scotland, who had already been eliminated, it was of great significance to

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

, who qualified for the finals as a result of this strike. Kevin Harper alleged that he had been racially abused by Mackay during a match in November 1996. The

Scottish Football Association The Scottish Football Association (also known as the SFA and the Scottish FA; sco, Scots Fitba Association; Scottish Gaelic: ''Comann Ball-coise na h-Alba'') is the Sport governing body, governing body of association football, football in Scot ...

failed to investigate the incident. Mackay has since been involved in work for 'Show Racism the Red Card' which primarily aims to prevent racism in football. Mackay left Hearts in 1997 to play for Airdrie. After retiring as a player in 1999, Mackay then managed Airdrie for a season, but the club suffered severe financial problems and he was sacked to make way for

Steve Archibald Steven Archibald (born 27 September 1956) is a Scottish former professional footballer and manager. He played prominently as a forward for Aberdeen, winning the Scottish league in 1980, Tottenham Hotspur, winning two FA Cups and a UEFA Cup, and ...

during July 2000. Mackay has since worked as an agent, representing players including

Garry O'Connor Garry Lawrence John O'Connor (born 7 May 1983) is a Scottish former professional footballer. He played for Hibernian, Peterhead, Lokomotiv Moscow, Barnsley, Tom Tomsk, Birmingham City, Greenock Morton and represented Scotland. O'Connor began ...

Christophe Berra Christophe Didier Berra (born 31 January 1985) is a Scottish professional football former player and coach, who is currently the first team coach for Livingston. Berra began his professional career with Heart of Midlothian, playing 146 times f ...

and

Lee Wallace Lee Wallace (born 1 August 1987) is a Scottish former professional footballer. He represented the Scotland national team with 10 caps. Wallace started his career Heart of Midlothian, making his debut in 2005 at age seventeen, and joined Ran ...

. Mackay was criticised by his former club Hearts in June 2011 on the official Hearts website. "Over a short space of time 4 players at our club have been on the wrong end of the law. We note that 3 of them are represented by the same agent – Gary Mackay – who has been so vicious in his attacks against Mr Romanov".

References

External links

*
London Hearts club profile

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mackay, Gary 1964 births Airdrieonians F.C. (1878) managers Airdrieonians F.C. (1878) players Heart of Midlothian F.C. players Living people Footballers from Edinburgh Scotland international footballers Scottish Football League players Scottish football managers Scottish footballers British sports agents Scottish Football League managers Association football midfielders

Career

See also

References

External links