John Angus McDonald Hansen (born 3 February 1950) is a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

former footballer who played professionally solely for

Partick Thistle Partick Thistle Football Club are a professional association football, football club from Glasgow, Scotland and currently plays in the . Despite their name, the club are based at Firhill Stadium in the Maryhill area of the city, and have not ...

as a defender.

Club career

The older brother of the more noted player

Alan Hansen Alan David Hansen MBE (born 13 June 1955) is a Scottish former footballer and BBC television football pundit. Regarded as one of the greatest defenders of all time and one of Liverpool's best ever centre-backs, he enjoyed a highly decorated ...

(who also began his career with Partick Thistle), John played as a right-back or centre-half. He attended a rugby-playing school (

Alloa Academy Alloa Academy is a six-year state school, state-funded school, serving the town of Alloa in Clackmannanshire, Scotland. The pupil intake comes from four "feeder" primary schools, Redwell, Sunnyside, St. Mungo's and Park, and varies from a midd ...

) and only began to play football as a teenager, joining local club Sauchie Juniors before being brought to

Firhill Firhill Stadium, also known as Wyre Stadium at Firhill for sponsorship reasons, is a football and former rugby union, rugby league and greyhound racing stadium located in the Maryhill area of Glasgow, Scotland which has been the home of Partick ...

. Hansen was part of the Thistle team that was relegated in

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 1970 Tonghai earthquake, Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli ...

, promoted as lower division winners in

1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses (Solar eclipse of February 25, 1971, February 25, Solar eclipse of July 22, 1971, July 22 and Solar eclipse of August 20, 1971, August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 1971 lunar eclip ...

and then defeated

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 Foot ...

4–1 in the 1971 Scottish League Cup Final. Between 1967 and 1978 he played 213 league games, scoring 6 goals in the process. He played alongside his younger brother for four seasons, during which the club were relegated in a league restructure in

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 – Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

but bounced back as second-tier champions again in

1976 Events January * January 2 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 18 – Full diplomatic ...

and finished fifth in the

1976–77 Scottish Premier Division The 1976–77 Scottish Premier Division season was won by Celtic, nine points ahead of Rangers. Heart of Midlothian and Kilmarnock were relegated. Table Results Matches 1–18 During matches 1–18 each team plays every other team twice (home ...

. Persistent knee injuries dogged his career; with various operations on his

cartilage Cartilage is a resilient and smooth type of connective tissue. Semi-transparent and non-porous, it is usually covered by a tough and fibrous membrane called perichondrium. In tetrapods, it covers and protects the ends of long bones at the joints ...

and

cruciate ligament Cruciate ligaments (also cruciform ligaments) are pairs of ligaments arranged like a letter X. They occur in several joints of the body, such as the knee joint, wrist joint and the atlanto-axial joint. In a fashion similar to the cords in ...

ending the possibility of a move to

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 ...

, whilst also robbing him of the chance to compete in Europe following the League Cup win—eventually forcing his retirement from playing, aged just 27.

International career

Hansen won two caps for

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

under manager

Tommy Docherty Thomas Henderson Docherty (24 April 1928 – 31 December 2020), commonly known as The Doc, was a Scottish football player and manager. Docherty played for several clubs, most notably Preston North End, and represented Scotland 25 times bet ...

, playing against

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

in a 1–0 victory in a European Championship Qualifier, and against

Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...

in a 2–2 draw in the

Brazilian Independence Cup The Brazil Independence Cup was an international association football, football tournament held in Brazil, from 11 June to 9 July 1972, to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Brazilian Declaration of Independence. It was called the ''Minicopa' ...

Later life

Following his retirement as a player, Hansen spent some time working for Partick Thistle as the club's public relations officer. He is married to Sandra Ann and now lives in Surrey with his son Simon.

References

External links

* * 1950 births Living people Footballers from Clackmannanshire Men's association football fullbacks Scottish men's footballers Scotland men's international footballers Partick Thistle F.C. players Scottish Football League players Sauchie Juniors F.C. players Scottish Junior Football Association players Scottish people of Danish descent 20th-century Scottish sportsmen {{Scotland-footy-defender-1950s-stub