Lewis Smith (born 16 March 2000) 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 for

Livingston Livingston may refer to: Businesses * Livingston Energy Flight, an Italian airline (2003–2010) * Livingston Compagnia Aerea, an Italian airline (2011–2014), also known as Livingston Airline * Livingston International, a North American custom ...

, 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 ...

Club career

Hamilton Academical

Smith attended

St Ninian's High School, Giffnock St Ninian's High School is a six-year co-educational Roman Catholic state high school in Giffnock, East Renfrewshire, Scotland. The school, which opened in 1984, serves Giffnock, Clarkston, Thornliebank, Newton Mearns, Eaglesham, Netherlee, Wa ...

and was involved with the

youth system In sporting terminology, a youth system (or youth academy) is a youth investment program within a particular team or league, which develops and nurtures young talent in farm teams, with the vision of using them in the first team in the future if ...

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 ...

, the club his family supported, from the age of 9. After signing a professional contract in summer 2016, he appeared for the club's age-restricted teams in three editions of the

Scottish Challenge Cup The Scottish Professional Football League Challenge Cup,2018–19 UEFA Youth League The 2018–19 UEFA Youth League was the sixth season of the UEFA Youth League, a European youth club football competition organised by UEFA. The final was played on 29 April 2019 at the Colovray Stadium in Nyon, Switzerland, between English side ...

, before making his debut for the ''Accies'' senior team on 31 October 2018, appearing from the bench for the last ten minutes of a 3–0 away defeat to

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 the

2018–19 Scottish Premiership The 2018–19 Scottish Premiership (known as the Ladbrokes Premiership for sponsorship reasons) was the sixth season of the Scottish Premiership, the highest division of Scottish football. The fixtures were published on 15 June 2018 and the sea ...

. Smith made his first league start for the club on 10 August 2019 against

Kilmarnock Kilmarnock (, sco, Kilmaurnock; gd, Cill Mheàrnaig (IPA: ʰʲɪʎˈveaːɾnəkʲ, "Marnock's church") is a large town and former burgh in East Ayrshire, Scotland and is the administrative centre of East Ayrshire, East Ayrshire Council. ...

New Douglas Park New Douglas Park, currently known as the ZLX Stadium for sponsorship purposes, is a football stadium in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Scotland, which serves as the home of Scottish Championship side Hamilton Academical and Scottish League One sid ...

; he scored the opening goal and created the second in a 2–0 victory, receiving praise for his performance. In November 2019 he signed a new contract with Hamilton, running until summer 2022. A hamstring injury disrupted his season in

2020–21 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 ...

as Hamilton were relegated from the Premiership. He signed a further contract extension, until summer 2024, in November 2021. The club were relegated from the

Scottish Championship The Scottish Championship, known as the cinch Championship for sponsorship reasons, is the second tier of the Scottish Professional Football League, the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland Scotland (, ...

in 2023, but Smith had an important role as they returned via the

promotion play-offs Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

a year later, scoring in wins over

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 ...

and

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 ...

Livingston

In May 2024, Smith signed a pre-contract with

, effective from 1 June, on a two-year deal.

International career

Smith has represented Scotland at under-17 youth level; he sat four of his

Higher Higher may refer to: Music * The Higher, a 2002–2012 American pop rock band Albums * ''Higher'' (Ala Boratyn album) or the title song, 2007 * ''Higher'' (Ezio album) or the title song, 2000 * ''Higher'' (Harem Scarem album) or the title song ...

school exams while on international duty at the

2017 UEFA European Under-17 Championship The 2017 UEFA European Under-17 Championship (also known as UEFA Under-17 Euro 2017) was the 16th edition of the UEFA European Under-17 Championship (35th edition if the Under-16 era is also included), the annual international youth football champi ...

in Croatia. In August 2019 he was called-up by the under-21 squad, making his debut in September 2019.

Honours

Hamilton Academical *

Scottish Challenge Cup The Scottish Professional Football League Challenge Cup,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 ...

Raith Rovers 0–1 Hamilton Academical
Andrew Petrie,

BBC Sport BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC, providing national sports coverage for BBC television, radio and online. The BBC holds the television and radio UK broadcasting rights to several sports, broadcasting the sport live or alongside flag ...

, 26 March 2023

References

2000 births Living people Scottish men's footballers Hamilton Academical F.C. players Livingston F.C. players Scottish Professional Football League players Men's association football midfielders Scotland men's youth international footballers Scotland men's under-21 international footballers People educated at St Ninian's High School, Giffnock {{scotland-footy-midfielder-2000s-stub