John Angus McDonald Hansen (born 3 February 1950 in Sauchie, Clackmannanshire) is a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

former footballer who played professionally solely for

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. ...

as a defender.

Club career

The older brother of the more noted player Alan Hansen (who also began his career with Partick Thistle), John played as a right-back or centre-half. He attended a rugby-playing school (

Alloa Academy , date = August 2009 Alloa Academy is a six-year state-funded comprehensive school, serving the town of Alloa in Clackmannanshire, Scotland. The school currently has 89 teaching staff. The pupil intake comes from four "feeder" primary school ...

) and only began to play football as a teenager, joining local club Sauchie Juniors before being brought to

Firhill Firhill Stadium is a football and former rugby union, rugby league and greyhound racing stadium located in the Maryhill area of Glasgow, Scotland which has been the home of Partick Thistle since 1909. The stadium is commonly referred to as simp ...

. Hansen was part of the Thistle team that was relegated in

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli intensity of X (''Extrem ...

, promoted as lower division winners in

1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses ( February 25, July 22 and August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 10, and August 6). The world population increased by 2.1% this year, the highest increase in history. Events Ja ...

and then defeated Celtic 4–1 in the 1971 Scottish League Cup Final. Between 1967 and 1978 he played 213 league games, scoring 6 goals in the process. He played alongside his younger brother for four seasons, during which the club were relegated in a league restructure in

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 - Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

but bounced back as second-tier champions again in

1976 Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 Phila ...

and finished fifth in the 1976–77 Scottish Premier Division. Persistent knee injuries dogged his career, with various operations on his

cartilage Cartilage is a resilient and smooth type of connective tissue. In tetrapods, it covers and protects the ends of long bones at the joints as articular cartilage, and is a structural component of many body parts including the rib cage, the neck an ...

and cruciate ligament ending the possibility of a move to

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

, robbing him of the chance to compete in Europe following the League Cup win, and eventually forcing his retirement from playing aged just 27.

International career

Hansen won two caps for Scotland under manager Tommy Docherty, playing against Belgium in a 1–0 victory in a European Championship Qualifier, and against Yugoslavia in a 2–2 draw in the

Brazilian Independence Cup The Brazil Independence Cup was an international association football, football tournament held in Brazil, from 11 June to 9 July 1972, to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Brazilian Declaration of Independence. It was called the ''Minicopa ...

Later life

Following his retirement as a player, Hansen spent some time working for Partick Thistle as the club's public relations officer. He is married to Sandra Ann and now lives in Surrey with his son Simon.

References

External links

* * 1950 births Living people Sportspeople from Clackmannanshire Association football fullbacks Scottish footballers Scotland international footballers Partick Thistle F.C. players Scottish Football League players Sauchie F.C. players Scottish Junior Football Association players Scottish people of Danish descent {{Scotland-footy-defender-1950s-stub