Ryan James Jack (born 27 February 1992) 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

central 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 ...

for Rangers and the Scotland national team. Jack began his career at

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 ...

, spending 17 years connected with the club across youth and senior categories and serving as club captain for two years. Jack left Aberdeen in 2017, signing for Rangers as a free agent.

Early life

Ryan James Jack was born on 27 February 1992 in

Club career

Aberdeen

Jack signed professional terms with

in the summer of 2008, having been part of his hometown club's

youth academy 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 t ...

since the age of eight. He made his first team league debut for the club against Rangers in September 2010 and soon became a regular in the first team. In January 2011 he scored his first goal for Aberdeen 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 ...

, which was voted as the club's Goal of the Season for 2010–11. A week later, he came on as a substitute in the Scottish Cup semi-final at Hampden Park, a 4–1 defeat to Celtic. Jack signed a new contract with Aberdeen in October 2011. On 13 December 2011 in a Scottish Premier League fixture against St Johnstone, he scored a goal from the halfway line to put his team 2–0 up after opposing goalkeeper

Peter Enckelman Peter Mikael Enckelman (born 10 March 1977) is a Finnish former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Enckelman represented Finland and previously played for TPS Turku, Aston Villa, Blackburn Rovers, Cardiff City, St Johnstone a ...

miskicked a clearance. The match ended 2–1 to Aberdeen, with Jack's winner helping the Dons move up to ninth in the table. In June 2013, Jack signed a three-year deal at Aberdeen, keeping him at the club until 2016. He subsequently played a pivotal role in Aberdeen's season, helping them into the

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 ...

semi-final, but was injured in January in a league match at Motherwell. and was ruled out for around six weeks, missing the semi-final with St Johnstone. He had returned by the time of the final of the competition, playing all 120 minutes as his club overcame Inverness CT in a penalty shoot-out. Jack did participate in a semi-final during the campaign in the

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,SPFL Player of the Month for December 2014. Two weeks later, he missed out on another League Cup final appearance as his team were beaten in the semis by

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 20 May 2015, he signed a one-year extension to his contract, keeping him at Aberdeen until the end of the 2016–17 season. On 24 June 2015, Jack was named captain for the 2015–16 season. After much speculation that he would move on, Jack left Aberdeen in May 2017 when his contract expired, having played 250 times for the ''Dons''. His last game was the

2017 Scottish Cup Final The 2017 Scottish Cup Final was the 132nd final of the Scottish Cup and the final of the 2016–17 Scottish Cup, the most prestigious knockout football competition in Scotland. The match took place at Hampden Park on 27 May 2017 and was contest ...

; earlier in the season he had also led out the team in the League Cup final, with both showpiece matches lost to Celtic.

Rangers

Jack signed a three-year contract with

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 Scottis ...

club Rangers on 1 June 2017. Upon signing, the former Aberdeen captain said that he was a huge Rangers fan growing up and that it was an "honour and a privilege" to join the club he supported. He made his debut for Rangers against

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

ish side Progrès Niederkorn in the first qualifying round of the 2017–18 UEFA Europa League on 29 June 2017, a tie which Rangers lost 2–1 on aggregate after losing 2–0 away from home. On Rangers' first visit to Aberdeen since his move, Jack started the game but was sent off in the second half for a bad tackle, although his team won the match 2–1. It was the fourth

red card A red card is a type of penalty card that is shown in many sports after a rules infraction. Red card may also refer to: Art, entertainment, and media * ''Red Card'' (album), 1976 release by Streetwalkers * Red card, suit (cards) of hearts or d ...

in the 2017–18 season (two were rescinded after reviews). In January 2018, Rangers confirmed that Jack required surgery on a knee injury sustained in a match the previous month, ruling him out of action for some time. Jack signed a new contract with Rangers in December 2018, due to run until the end of the 2020–21 season. On 29 December, he scored his first Rangers goal in the

Old Firm The Old Firm is the collective name for the Scottish football clubs Celtic and Rangers, which are both based in Glasgow. The two clubs are by far the most successful and popular in Scotland, and the rivalry between them has become deeply em ...

derby against Celtic, a match which Rangers won 1–0. In October 2019 he signed a new four-year contract with the club. Jack helped Rangers win the

2020–21 Scottish Premiership The 2020–21 Scottish Premiership was the eighth season of the Scottish Premiership, the highest division of Scottish football (the 124th edition overall of the top national league competition, not including one cancelled due to World War II). ...

, their first league championship since 2011. In the later part of the season he was troubled by a calf injury that required surgery, he eventually returning to the team in early November 2021.

International career

Jack has represented Scotland at under-16, under-17, under-19 and under-21 level. He captained the Under-21 side and is on the top ten list for appearances at this level. In May 2013, he received a call-up to the full Scotland squad for the game against

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

. Jack eventually made his full Scotland debut in a friendly against

the Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

in November 2017, by which time he had moved from formative club Aberdeen to Rangers. The match happened to take place in Aberdeen, and in the opening stages he was booed whenever he touched the ball by some of the crowd, due to the rivalry between those clubs and the ill-feeling his transfer had stirred; other fans responded to this by cheering and applauding him. Jack made his first competitive start for Scotland in November 2019, forming a midfield partnership with

Callum McGregor Callum William McGregor (born 14 June 1993) is a Scottish professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Scottish Premiership club Celtic, which he captains, and the Scotland national team. He has previously played for Notts County on ...

. He helped Scotland qualify for

UEFA Euro 2020 The 2020 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2020 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2020) or simply Euro 2020, was the 16th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe ...

, but missed the finals due to a calf injury that required surgery.

Career statistics

International

Honours

Aberdeen *

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 ...

: 2013–14; runner-up: 2016–17 *

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,2016–17 Rangers *

: 2020–21 *

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,2021–22 *

runner-up: 2019–20 *

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. ...

runner-up: 2021–22 Individual * SPFL Player of the Month: December 2014

References

External links

Profile
at the Rangers F.C. website {{DEFAULTSORT:Jack, Ryan 1992 births Living people Footballers from Aberdeen Scottish men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Aberdeen F.C. players Rangers F.C. players Scottish Premier League players Scottish Professional Football League players Scotland men's youth international footballers Scotland men's under-21 international footballers Scotland men's international footballers