Paul Simon Ritchie (born 21 August 1975) is a Scottish

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

coach and former professional player. A

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

, he started his playing career with Heart of Midlothian, making 133 league appearances for the club and helping it win the

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

. He played for several clubs after leaving ''Hearts'' during the 1999–2000 season. Ritchie made seven appearances for the Scotland national team between 1999 and 2004, scoring one goal. Since retiring as a player he has worked as a football coach, as assistant coach with

Vancouver Whitecaps FC Vancouver Whitecaps Football Club is a Canadian professional Association football, soccer club based in Vancouver. The Whitecaps compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference (MLS), Western Conference. The MLS ite ...

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

and for San Diego, the

LA Galaxy The Los Angeles Galaxy are an American professional Association football, soccer club based in the Greater Los Angeles area. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference (MLS), Western Conference. The Gal ...

-affiliated youth soccer club.

Club career

Beginning his career with Heart of Midlothian (Hearts) in 1992, Ritchie quickly gained a reputation as a promising defender, gaining a regular first team place and winning Scotland under-21 caps. The highlight of his time at Hearts was undoubtedly the club's

. Persistent speculation linked him with a move to

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

, particularly with his Hearts contract due to expire in

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

. The Tynecastle club, however, were unwilling to allow him to move to a rival cheaply, and he spent time with

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club ( ) is a professional association football, football club based in Horwich, Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in EFL League One, League One, the third level of the Englis ...

on a short-term contract and appeared in both the FA Cup and League Cup Semi Finals before finally joining Rangers on a Bosman free transfer in June 2000. However, Rangers manager

Dick Advocaat Dirk Nicolaas "Dick" Advocaat (; born 27 September 1947) is a Dutch former association football, football player and coach. He is currently the manager of the Curaçao national football team. Advocaat was successful as a football player and as a ...

then elected to sell Ritchie to

Manchester City Manchester City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Manchester, England, that competes in the Premier League, the English football league system, top flight of Football in England, English footbal ...

for a fee of £500,000 just two months later, without him ever playing a first team match for the club. Ritchie spent three years with City, but struggled throughout to earn a regular place in their team, spending time out on loan with

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in En ...

and

Derby County Derby County Football Club () is a professional association football club in Derby, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English football league system. One of the 12 founder members of the English Football ...

. While at Portsmouth he contributed 12 appearances in the first half of the 2002–03 season, at the end of which they won the First Division Championship and promotion to the

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

. In August 2003 he left on a free transfer and joined

Walsall Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall, in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located ...

, where despite suffering relegation he was at least able to play regular first team football again, forcing himself back into the international reckoning with some inspirational performances, scoring once against Rotherham United. However, whilst at Walsall he was caught up in a contract dispute with owner Jeff Bonser, indirectly leading to the dismissal of Saddler's manager

Colin Lee Colin Lee (born 12 June 1956) is an English football manager and former footballer. He is currently head of football at South Dartmoor Community College in Ashburton, Devon along with Chris Beard. Playing career Lee began his football career w ...

. After leaving Walsall, Ritchie signed a short-term contract with Dundee United, despite interest from

Kilmarnock Kilmarnock ( ; ; , ), meaning "the church of Mernóc", is a town and former burgh in East Ayrshire situated in southwest Scotland. The town has served as the administrative centre of East Ayrshire Council since 1996 and is the region's main ...

Livingston Livingston or Livingstonemay 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 Am ...

and Sheffield Utd. His contract was later extended despite injury problems limiting his appearances at first. For a while he was regularly captaining the team, but in April 2006 United manager

Craig Brewster Craig James Brown Brewster (born 13 December 1966) is a Scottish former professional footballer, turned coach. He made his name in a long playing career as a striker for numerous clubs in Scotland, particularly Forfar Athletic, Raith Rovers, D ...

announced Ritchie was free to leave the club at the end of the season, despite having a year of his contract left to run. His departure was finally confirmed in August 2006. He then moved to Omonia Nicosia but left at the end of the season because of an injury to his cruciate ligament. Ritchie moved to

Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...

as youth coach in summer 2007 but left in November. In 2009, Ritchie signed with

Carolina RailHawks North Carolina FC is an American professional soccer team in Cary, North Carolina, a suburb of Raleigh, and member of the USL Championship. Founded in 2006, the team previously was named the Carolina Railhawks. On December 6, 2016, the RailH ...

of the

USL First Division The USL First Division (USL-1) was a professional men's soccer league in the second tier of the United States league system. It was organized by the United Soccer League as its premier league for men from 1996 to 2010, above the USL Second ...

in the United States. In June 2009 it was announced that Ritchie had left the club, having made just one first team appearance.

International career

Ritchie represented Scotland seven times. He made his debut in a friendly win against

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

in April 1999. His next cap against the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

saw him score his only international goal. Within a year he had taken his cap total to six, but thereafter a lack of first team football at Manchester City saw him drop out of contention. He won only one more cap, against

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

in 2004 following some fine displays for Walsall.

Coaching career

After his playing career ended in 2009, Ritchie returned to Britain to complete his coaching badges and work for the

Manchester United Manchester United Football Club, commonly referred to as Man United (often stylised as Man Utd) or simply United, is a professional association football, football club based in Old Trafford (area), Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, Engl ...

soccer schools. He returned to Carolina RailHawks as assistant coach in 2010 and 2011 under manager Martin Rennie. Rennie moved on to

in November 2011 and brought Ritchie with him as assistant coach for the

club. Ritchie was released in January 2014 after Rennie was sacked. In 2019 he was the youth soccer coach for San Diego, the MLS-affiliated youth soccer club of LA Galaxy.

Career statistics

Honours

Hearts *

References

External links

* *
London Hearts profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ritchie, Paul Footballers from Kirkcaldy 1975 births Living people Scottish men's footballers Men's association football central defenders Scotland men's international footballers Scotland men's under-21 international footballers Scotland men's B international footballers Heart of Midlothian F.C. players Bolton Wanderers F.C. players Rangers F.C. players Manchester City F.C. players Portsmouth F.C. players Derby County F.C. players Walsall F.C. players Dundee United F.C. players AC Omonia players North Carolina FC players Premier League players Scottish Premier League players Scottish Football League players USL First Division players Cypriot First Division players Scottish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Cyprus Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Scottish expatriate sportspeople in the United States Vancouver Whitecaps FC non-playing staff