Robbie Muirhead (born 8 March 1996) 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

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

for

Greenock Morton Greenock Morton Football Club is a Scottish professional football club, which plays in the Scottish Championship. The club was founded as Morton Football Club in 1874, making it one of the oldest senior Scottish clubs. Morton was renamed Greeno ...

. Muirhead began his career with

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. ...

before joining

Dundee United Dundee United Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the city of Dundee. The club name is usually abbreviated to Dundee United. Formed in 1909, originally as Dundee Hibernian, the club changed to the present name in 1 ...

in February 2015. After a loan spell with

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. ...

between September 2015 to January 2016, Muirhead was released by Dundee United in April 2016, before signing for Heart of Midlothian. In 2017, he moved to

Milton Keynes Dons Milton Keynes Dons Football Club (), usually abbreviated to MK Dons, is a professional association football club based in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. The team competes in , the third tier of the English football league system. The ...

, then spent a season at

Dunfermline Athletic Dunfermline Athletic Football Club is a Scottish football club based in the city of Dunfermline, Fife. Founded in 1885, the club currently play in Scottish League One after being relegated from the 2021–22 Scottish Championship. Dunfermline ...

. He has represented Scotland at all levels up to U19 level.

Early life

Born in

Irvine Irvine may refer to: Places On Earth Antarctica *Irvine Glacier *Mount Irvine (Antarctica) Australia *Irvine Island *Mount Irvine, New South Wales Canada *Irvine, Alberta * Irvine Inlet, Nunavut United Kingdom *Irvine, North Ayrshire, Scotla ...

, Scotland, Muirhead was known for playing football and golf locally, and was mentioned on several occasions in his local newspaper. Muirhead is also the first and still the only boy to win both the West of Scotland Cup and Scottish Cup when representing Annanhill Primary School during year 6 and year 7 when he was Captain of the schools team.

Club career

Kilmarnock

Muirhead joined

academy before joining the first team. He made his professional league debut in the last game of the season, coming on as a substitute in the second half for

Cillian Sheridan Cillian Sheridan (born 23 February 1989) is an Irish professional footballer who plays for Scottish Championship side Dundee. Sheridan began his career with Celtic in 2006, but a lack of first team opportunities saw him being loaned to other ...

, in a 3–1 loss against St Mirren, which was

Kenny Shiels Kenny Shiels (born 27 April 1956 in Magherafelt)Marshall Gillespie, ''The Northern Ireland Football Yearbook 1996/97'', UTV Books, 1996, p. 59 is a former Northern Irish football player and manager, who is currently the manager of the Northern Ir ...

's last game as Kilmarnock Manager. Muirhead's playing time in the 2013–14 season soon increased with 21 appearances and scoring twice against

. and

St Johnstone St Johnstone Football Club is a professional association football club in Perth, Scotland which is a member of the Scottish Premiership for the 2022–23 season. The club's name is derived from St John's Toun ''aka'' Saint Johnstoun – an old ...

. His first team chance attracted interests from English clubs. In the first half of the 2014–15 season, Muirhead added two more goals to his career tally, against

Motherwell Motherwell ( sco, Mitherwall, gd, Tobar na Màthar) is a town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Historically in the parish of Dalziel and part of Lanarks ...

and St Mirren. His two goals to his tally career led Daily Record naming Muirhead as the next successor to

Kris Boyd Kris Boyd (born 18 August 1983) is a Scottish former professional footballer who played as a forward. Boyd grew up in the South Ayrshire village of Tarbolton and started his senior career with Kilmarnock. He transferred to Rangers in January ...

Dundee United

Muirhead left Kilmarnock to sign for

on the transfer deadline day for a fee of £150,000 plus add-ons, as well as signing a three-year deal. The sale of Muirhead caused the Kilmarnock manager

Allan Johnston Allan Johnston (born 14 December 1973) is a Scottish football player and coach, who was most recently the manager of Queen of the South. Johnston started his professional playing career with Heart of Midlothian and then followed on to Frenc ...

to resign in protest.

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 ...

was also keen to sign Muirhead, having signed Dundee United's Stuart Armstrong and

Gary Mackay-Steven Gary Sean Mackay-Steven (born 31 August 1990) is a Scottish professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Midfielder#Winger, winger for Scottish Premiership club Heart of Midlothian F.C., Heart of Midlothian. He will become a free ...

. Muirhead made his Dundee United debut, coming on as a substitute for

Henri Anier Henri Anier (born 17 December 1990) is an Estonian professional footballer who plays as a striker for Thai League 1 club Muangthong United and the Estonia national team. Club career Flora Anier came through the Flora youth system. He moved to ...

, in a 3–2 loss against Kilmarnock. He scored his first goal for the club in a 1–0 win against

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 ...

on 2 May. He followed this up three days later with another goal, in a 2–1 defeat against

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 ...

. On 1 September 2015, Muirhead was loaned to fellow

Scottish Premiership The Scottish Premiership, known as the cinch Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is the top division of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL), the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottish ...

club

on an initial three-month deal. Muirhead scored his first and second goal, including a 30-yard strike, for Thistle in a 5–2 win on 28 November against his former club Kilmarnock. He returned to Dundee United on 4 January 2016 following the expiry of his loan period. Muirhead did not play for United after his return, and was released from his contract in April 2016.

Heart of Midlothian

Muirhead signed a one-year deal with

side Heart of Midlothian in June 2016. On 30 November 2016, Muirhead scored twice in a 2–0 win over Rangers.

Milton Keynes Dons

On 19 January 2017, Muirhead signed a two-and-a-half-year deal to join English

League One The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...

side

for an undisclosed fee. He made his debut coming on as a substitute in a 5–3 home league win over Northampton Town on 21 January 2017. On 1 April 2017, Muirhead scored his first goal for the club in a 3–2 home league win over Gillingham. On 13 March 2018, Muirhead scored twice in a 3–2 home win against

Rotherham United Rotherham United Football Club, nicknamed The Millers, is a professional football club based in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The club's colours were initially yellow and black, but changed to red and white around 1 ...

Dunfermline Athletic

On 31 August 2018, Muirhead joined

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 (, ...

club

for an undisclosed fee, signing a one-year deal. He left in May 2019.

Greenock Morton

On 12 June 2019, Muirhead signed for

on a one-year contract. He scored his first goal for the club in a 0–5 victory against Annan Athletic in the Scottish League Cup group stages on 23 July 2019. Muirhead would have a slow start to life at Morton, scoring very rarely for the club. He would be offered another contract by manager

David Hopkin David Isaac Hopkin (born 21 August 1970) is a Scottish professional football coach and former player who was most recently the manager of Ayr United. As a player he was a midfielder from 1989 until 2003, notably in the English Premier League i ...

at the early end of the season brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. His second season in white and blue was also fairly quiet, scoring 4 goals for the season, 3 of these coming in both legs of the Championship play-off final against

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 ...

, including a stunning 18-yard volley at Cappielow. Muirhead was promptly offered another year-long contract following this. Muirhead started slowly again in season 2021/2022, however his form took a slight turn for the better under Manager Dougie Imrie, scoring 4 times in the second half of the season, including against

and his former club Partick Thistle. Muirhead would sign a 2 year contract in the summer of 2022. Muirhead would finally regain his form in the 2022/2023 season, scoring his first goal of the season against

Ayr United Ayr United Football Club are a football club in Ayr, Scotland, who play in the Scottish Championship, the second tier of the Scottish Professional Football League. Formed in 1910 by the merger of Ayr Parkhouse and Ayr F.C., their nickname is ...

in a 2-1 home defeat, however would go on to hit the 10 goal mark in a season for the first time in his career. Muirhead was also awarded Championship Player of the Month for September/October. He would go on to finish the season with a total of 13 goals, scoring on the last day of the season in a 2-1 away win over

Cove Rangers Cove Rangers Football Club is a senior Scottish football club currently playing in the Scottish Championship. They are based in the Cove Bay area of Aberdeen and play their football at Balmoral Stadium, having left their former home at Allan ...

, a goal which would relegate the Aberdeenshire side to league 1.

International career

Muirhead has previously represented Scotland at U16, U17, U18 and U19 international levels. While playing for Scotland U19, Muirhead scored a goal that was nominated for a "goal of the season" award by

UEFA Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs f ...

. On 13 March 2018, Muirhead was called up to the Scotland U21 national team for the first time.

Career statistics

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Muirhead, Robbie 1996 births Living people Scottish men's footballers Men's association football forwards Scottish Premier League players Scottish Professional Football League players English Football League players Kilmarnock F.C. players Scotland men's youth international footballers Footballers from Irvine, North Ayrshire Dundee United F.C. players Partick Thistle F.C. players Heart of Midlothian F.C. players Milton Keynes Dons F.C. players Dunfermline Athletic F.C. players Greenock Morton F.C. players