Stephen James Craigan (born 29 October 1976) is a Northern Irish former 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 ...

. He played in central defence, and spent his entire playing career in Scotland, playing for Motherwell (twice) and Partick Thistle. He has also played for the Northern Irish national team. He is currently a studio pundit for

BT Sport BT Sport is a group of pay television sports channels in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Owned by Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe and BT Group, they first launched on 1 August 2013. The channels are based at the former International Bro ...

's coverage of the

SPFL The Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) is the national men's association football league in Scotland. The league was formed in June 2013 following a merger between the Scottish Premier League and the Scottish Football League. As we ...

and the

Scottish League Cup The Scottish League Cup (also known as the Viaplay Cup for sponsorship reasons) is a football competition open to all Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) clubs. First held in 1946–47, it is the oldest national League Cup in existen ...

Club career

A boyhood

Glentoran Glentoran Football Club is a professional football club that plays in the NIFL Premiership. The club was founded in 1882. History Early history In 1914, Glentoran won the Vienna Cup, becoming the first United Kingdom team to win a European t ...

fan, Craigan started his career in Scotland with Motherwell in 1994 when he was signed by

Alex McLeish Alexander McLeish (born 21 January 1959) is a Scottish professional football manager and former player. He played as a defender for Aberdeen during their 1980s glory years, making nearly 500 League appearances for the club, and won 77 caps for ...

. However, after only twenty-six appearances, he was released on a free transfer. He signed for

Scottish Second Division The Scottish Football League Second Division was the third tier of the Scottish football league system between 1975 and 2013. History The Second Division was created in 1975, as part of a wider reconstruction of the Scottish Football League (SFL ...

club Partick Thistle in 2000 and helped them back to the Scottish Premier League, making 121 appearances. After his contract expired in 2003, he returned to Motherwell, who were then managed by former

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

international

Terry Butcher Terry Ian Butcher (born 28 December 1958) is an English football manager and former player. He works as an academy coach for Ipswich Town. During his playing career as a defender, Butcher captained the England national team, winning 77 caps ...

. Since then, Craigan has been an integral part of Motherwell's steady progress in the league. Craigan has since gone on to become Motherwell's most capped player. He works for

BBC Radio Scotland BBC Radio Scotland is a Scotland, Scottish radio station, radio network owned and operated by BBC Scotland, a division of the BBC. It broadcasts a wide variety of programmes. It replaced the Scottish BBC Radio 4 opt-out service of the same na ...

, also commentated on some European matches for Setanta Sports and ESPN. Craigan is a regular pundit on

Sky Sports News Radio Sky Sports News Radio was a British online radio station broadcasting sports news, results and information 24 hours a day that lasted for 4 years, from June 2010 to September 2014. It was a sister service to the television channel Sky Sports News ...

, rounding up the weekly hot topics in the Scottish Premiership. In January 2008, Craigan was made

club captain The team captain of an association football team, sometimes known as the skipper, is a team member chosen to be the on-pitch leader of the team; they are often one of the older or more experienced members of the squad, or a player that can heavi ...

of Motherwell, taking over from Phil O'Donnell, who died after collapsing on the pitch during a match against

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 ...

on 29 December 2007. In June 2009, Craigan was appointed the player- caretaker manager of Motherwell while the club looked for a replacement for Mark McGhee, who departed for

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 ...

. This temporary appointment ended when

Jim Gannon James Paul Gannon (born 7 September 1968) is a professional football manager and former player who most recently was manager of Hyde United. He started and finished his career as a player in Ireland, but made most of his professional appear ...

was hired as the new manager. He endured a troubled relationship with Gannon, featuring in only seven of the seventeen league games he was in charge at Motherwell after being publicly criticised by the manager, but returned to regular first-team action under Craig Brown. On 16 April 2011 Craigan scored his first goal since 2006 with a header to open the scoring in the

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,St Johnstone, which Motherwell won 3–0 to advance to the 2011 Scottish Cup Final. On 9 June 2011, Craigan signed a new one-year contract at Motherwell. Craigan was awarded a testimonial match, against his former club Partick Thistle. He scored the only goal of the game, on 13 July 2011. On 9 May 2012, Craigan announced that he would retire after Motherwell's last game of the 2011–12 Scottish Premier League season. On 29 October 2021, it was announced that Craigan was to be inducted into the Motherwell F.C. Hall of Fame.

International career

Craigan is Motherwell's record cap holder, having received 54 caps for

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 ...

while playing for the club. Craigan played in their 1–0 victory against

in September 2005 and the 3–2 win over

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

a year later. He captained his country on their end of season tour in 2010 against

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

and

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

and continued as captain against

Montenegro ) , image_map = Europe-Montenegro.svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Podgorica , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , official_languages = M ...

on 11 August 2010. His 50th cap came in a surprise victory away to

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

on 3 September 2010, in their first game of the Euro 2012 campaign. On 19 July 2011, Craigan announced his retirement from International football, earning 54 caps, the last of those coming against

Coaching career

Craigan has made steady strides into management. As well as being caretaker manager for Motherwell in 2009, he was named assistant manager of the Northern Ireland Under-19 squad on 11 October 2012. He also continued working as a football pundit for radio and television. In July 2015, Craigan was appointed manager of Motherwell's under-20 team. After manager

Ian Baraclough Ian Robert Baraclough (; born 4 December 1970) is an English football manager and former player who was most recently the manager of the Northern Ireland national team. He previously managed the Under-21 team. As a player, he was a defender f ...

left the club in September, Craigan was put in temporary control of the first team.

Media career

Since

took over

ESPN UK BT Sport 4 is a British sports television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery EMEA and the BT Group. It is part of the BT Sport group of channels in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and is predominantly focused on sports from North America. ...

's rights to the

in 2013, Craigan has appeared as a studio pundit on the network, regularly appearing alongside

Darrell Currie Darrell Currie (born 1982) is a Scottish television presenter and journalist. He is currently a presenter and touchline reporter for BT Sport, where he covers English and Scottish football. He also is part of the ESPN football coverage team. ...

, and fellow pundits

Chris Sutton Christopher Roy Sutton (born 10 March 1973) is an English former professional football player and manager. He later became a pundit and commentator for BT Sport, regularly working on their coverage of Scottish football. He is now also a pundi ...

and

Ally McCoist Alistair Murdoch McCoist, (; born 24 September 1962) is a Scottish former footballer who has since worked as a manager and TV pundit. McCoist began his playing career with Scottish club St Johnstone before moving to English side Sunderland in ...

. From the start of the 2016–17 season Craigan has also appeared on

's coverage of the

, working as an analyst and co-commentator, alongside

Rob MacLean Robin "Rob" Maclean (born 1958 in Invergordon) is a Scottish television presenter, football commentator and sports writer. He currently works for BBC Scotland and BT Sport. Maclean began his career with the Highland News Group in Inverness b ...

or Rory Hamilton. He also works as a pundit on Premier Sport's coverage of Scottish Football.

Career statistics

International

NI games played by Stephen Craigan
NIfootball

References

External links

Stephen Craigan profile
at Motherwell FC official website * {{DEFAULTSORT:Craigan, Stephen 1976 births Living people People from Newtownards Association footballers from Northern Ireland Association football defenders Northern Ireland B international footballers Northern Ireland international footballers Scottish Premier League players Scottish Football League players Motherwell F.C. players Partick Thistle F.C. players Football managers from Northern Ireland Motherwell F.C. managers Motherwell F.C. non-playing staff