Ryan Hardie (born 17 March 1997) 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 ...

who plays as a forward for Plymouth Argyle. Hardie started his career with Rangers, and was loaned by them to

Raith Rovers Raith Rovers Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the town of Kirkcaldy, Fife. The club was founded in 1883 and currently competes in the Scottish Championship as a member of the Scottish Professional Football Leagu ...

, St Mirren and Livingston. In July 2019 he moved to English club Blackpool, with whom he remained for 18 months, before signing for Plymouth Argyle in January 2021. Hardie has represented Scotland at youth internationals up to and including the Under-21 level.

Club career

Rangers

Hardie, from Stranraer, is a boyhood Rangers fan. He made his professional debut for the team in a

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

match against Falkirk on 23 September 2014, replacing Dean Shiels for the last four minutes of a 3–1 win at the

Falkirk Stadium The Falkirk Stadium is a football stadium in Falkirk, central Scotland, which is the home ground of Scottish League One club Falkirk and Lowland Football League club East Stirlingshire. The stadium has a capacity of and currently consists of t ...

. He was first called up for a league game on 15 November, remaining an unused substitute in a 1–1 draw with

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 ...

at Ibrox. On 28 March 2015, he made his

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. The Scottish Champio ...

debut, replacing

Nicky Clark Nicholas Alexander McCormack Clark (born 3 June 1991) is a Scottish professional footballer who plays as a striker for St Johnstone. Clark is the son of the former Airdrieonians, Hearts, Rangers and West Ham striker Sandy Clark. Career Ear ...

for the final 16 minutes of a 4–1 home win over

Cowdenbeath Cowdenbeath (; sco, Coudenbeith) is a town and burgh in west Fife, Scotland. It is north-east of Dunfermline and north of the capital, Edinburgh. The town grew up around the extensive coalfields of the area and became a police burgh in 189 ...

. Hardie's first start was on 18 April away to

Dumbarton Dumbarton (; also sco, Dumbairton; ) is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland, on the north bank of the River Clyde where the River Leven flows into the Clyde estuary. In 2006, it had an estimated population of 19,990. Dumbarton was the ca ...

and he scored his first two professional goals as they came from behind to win 3–1, the second being an

overhead kick In association football, a bicycle kick, also known as an overhead kick, scissors kick, is an acrobatic strike where a player kicks an airborne ball rearward in midair. It is achieved by throwing the body backward up into the air and, before ...

from

Lee Wallace Lee Wallace (born 1 August 1987) is a Scottish former professional footballer. He represented the Scotland national team with 10 caps. Wallace started his career Heart of Midlothian, making his debut in 2005 at age seventeen, and joined Ran ...

's cross. On 17 February 2016, Hardie was loaned out to

on an initial month-long loan; however, this was extended to the end of the season a month later. On 25 July 2016, Hardie joined

club St Mirren on loan until January 2017. He made his debut in the

against Edinburgh City on 30 July 2016. Hardie moved on loan again to Raith Rovers in January 2017, on a deal until May 2017. In January 2018, he returned to the second tier of Scottish football, this time signing a six-month loan deal with Livingston. Upon his return to Rangers, Hardie signed a one-year contract extension to tie him to the club until 2019. Hardie again signed on loan for Livingston for the first part of the 2018–19 season. In January 2019 he signed another one-year contract with Rangers, and returned on loan to Livingston.

Blackpool

Hardie moved to EFL League One club Blackpool for an undisclosed fee in July 2019. He scored his first goal for Blackpool when he scored in an EFL Trophy tie against Morecambe on 3 September 2019. He signed on loan for Plymouth Argyle for the rest of the 2019–20 season on 9 January 2020. On 29 July, he returned to Plymouth on loan until the end of the 2020–21 season.

Plymouth Argyle

Halfway through his second loan spell at the club, Hardie completed a permanent move on 29 January 2021.

International career

Hardie has represented Scotland at various age levels. Hardie was selected for the Scotland U17 team in the UEFA under-17 Championship in

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, where the

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beat them in the semi finals. He was selected for the under-20 squad in the

2017 Toulon Tournament The 2017 Toulon Tournament (officially french: 45ème Festival International "Espoirs" – Tournoi Maurice Revello) was the 45th edition of the Toulon Tournament. The tournament was named after Maurice Revello, who started the tournament in 1967 a ...

. After a historic first ever win against

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, the first at any level, Scotland later won the bronze medal. It was the nations first ever medal at the competition.

Career statistics

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hardie, Ryan 1997 births Living people People from Stranraer Scottish footballers Association football forwards Scotland youth international footballers Scotland under-21 international footballers Scottish Professional Football League players English Football League players Rangers F.C. players St Mirren F.C. players Raith Rovers F.C. players Livingston F.C. players Blackpool F.C. players Plymouth Argyle F.C. players