Kirsty Maclean (born 12 April 2005) is a Scottish 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

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for

Rangers A Ranger is typically someone in a military/paramilitary or law enforcement role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called “ranging”. The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with protecting and ...

of the

Scottish Women's Premier League The Scottish Women's Premier League (SWPL) is the highest level of league competition in women's football in Scotland. Its two divisions are SWPL 1 and SWPL 2. The league was formed when the Premier Division of the Scottish Women's Football League ...

(SWPL) and the Scotland national team.

Club career

A pupil at

Barrhead High School Barrhead High School is a secondary school in Barrhead, East Renfrewshire. The school is over forty years old. Fiona Johnston is the current headmistress, appointed in June-Aug 2020. Associated primary schools Also known as "feeder" schools, ...

, where she achieved five

Highers In the Scottish secondary education system, the Higher () is one of the national school-leaving certificate exams and university entrance qualifications of the Scottish Qualifications Certificate (SQC) offered by the Scottish Qualifications ...

in 2022, Maclean progressed through the girls' academy at

(although she is a supporter of St MirrenGirls International Squad 2019
Scottish Schools' Football Association. "She plays for the Glasgow Rangers U19 team and is a St Mirren supporter. Kirsty has been likened to her favourite player, ex-SSFA and full Internationalist Erin Cuthbert" where the women's section of the club play at a low level having only been established in 2018). She made her senior debut during the

2021–22 Scottish Women's Premier League The 2021–22 Scottish Women's Premier League was the 21st season of the SWPL, the highest division of women's football in Scotland since 2002. The league is split into two divisions – SWPL 1 with 10 teams and SWPL 2 with seven teams, following th ...

season aged 16, making a handful of appearances as Rangers won their first championship. Along with teammates Jodi McLeary and Emma Watson, she signed a professional contract in August 2022. After establishing herself as a regular in the squad during the 2022–23 season, in which she also made four appearances (three starts) in the

UEFA Women's Champions League The UEFA Women's Champions League, previously called the UEFA Women's Cup (2001–2009), is a European women's association football competition. It involves the top club teams from countries affiliated with the European governing body UEFA. The ...

, was introduced as a late substitute in Rangers' win over Hibernian in the SWPL Cup final and was nominated for the PFA Scotland Women's Young Player of the Year, Maclean signed an extended contract in May 2023. The campaign ended in disappointment on a collective level, however, as Rangers lost their title with a home defeat to Glasgow City on the final matchday, then were defeated by their other local 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 ...

in the

2023 Scottish Cup Final The 2023 Scottish Cup final was the final match of the 2022–23 Scottish Cup, the 138th edition of Scotland's most prestigious knockout football competition. It was contested by Celtic and Inverness Caledonian Thistle at Hampden Park, Glasgow, o ...

(the first

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 ...

women's final and the first played 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 ...

) a week later. Rangers won the

2023–24 Scottish Women's Premier League Cup The 2023–24 Scottish Women's Premier League Cup was the 21st edition of the Scottish Women's Premier League's league cup competition, which began in 2002. It was sponsored by Sky Sports and officially known as the Sky Sports Scottish Women's Pre ...

and the 2023–24 Scottish Women's Cup (Maclean missed the first final due to injury and started in the second) although they missed out on the SWPL championship again, this time on goal difference. Maclean was nominated for both the PFA Scotland Women's Players' Player of the Year and Young Player of the Year but lost out on both awards to clubmates Rachel Rowe and Mia McAulay respectively; however, she was named in the Team of the Year.

Playing style

As a midfielder with a low centre of gravity, good ball control and passing skills, her style of play has been compared to that of Andres Iniesta and

Erin Cuthbert Erin Jacqueline Cuthbert (born 19 July 1998) is a Scottish footballer who plays for Chelsea in the FA WSL and is a member of the Scotland national team. She studied at University of the West of Scotland, combining graduation from the Open Uni ...

International career

Maclean has represented Scotland at under-15, under-16, under-17 and under-19 levels, as well as a schoolgirl international for three consecutive years. She was called up to the Scotland senior team for the first time for a friendly double-header 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

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

in July 2023; she made her senior international debut as a substitute in a 3–0 win over Northern Ireland at Dens Park in

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 ...

Career statistics

International

:''Statistics accurate as of match played 1 December 2023''

Honours

Rangers *

: 2021–22 *

Scottish Women's Cup The Scottish Women's Cup is the national knockout cup competition for women's football in Scotland. First held in 1970–71, the competition is owned and managed by Scottish Women's Football (SWF), an affiliated body of the Scottish Football Assoc ...

: 2023–24 *

Scottish Women's Premier League Cup The Scottish Women's Premier League Cup or SWPL Cup is a league cup competition in women's football in Scotland. The Cup is open only to the teams in the Scottish Women's Premier League. There are four rounds, including the final. The competition ...

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

Report: Rangers 2-0 Hibernian - The Gers Lift The Sky Sports Cup
Rangers FC, 11 December 2022

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maclean, Kirsty 2005 births Living people Footballers from East Renfrewshire Sportspeople from Barrhead Rangers W.F.C. players Women's association football midfielders Scottish women's footballers Scotland women's international footballers 21st-century Scottish women Scottish Women's Premier League players Scotland women's youth international footballers