Craig Levein

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Personal information
Craig Levein
Full name	Craig William Levein
Date of birth	22 October 1964
Place of birth	Aberdour, Scotland
Position	Defender
Club information
Current club	Dundee United
Professional clubs*
Years	Club	Apps (goals)
1981-1983 1983-1997	Lochore Welfare Cowdenbeath Heart of Midlothian	n / a 60 (0) 326 (15)
National team
1990-94	Scotland	16 (0)
Teams managed
1997-00 2000-04 2004-06 2006 2006-Present	Cowdenbeath Heart of Midlothian Leicester City Raith Rovers Dundee United
* Professional club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.

Craig William Levein (born 22 October 1964 in Aberdour) is a Scottish former professional footballer and current football manager. Levein currently manages Scottish Premier League club Dundee United. During his playing career he played for Cowdenbeath, Heart of Midlothian and won 16 caps for the Scotland national team.

1 Playing career
2 Coaching and managerial career
3 Managerial record
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Playing career

As a youngster, Levein attended Inverkeithing High School, where he was in the football team alongside another future Scottish internationalist, Gordon Durie. His early football career saw him turn out for Dalgety Bay, Leven Royals and Inverkeithing under-16s. At the age of 15, however, he gave up football for a year, only resuming when his brother, who played for junior club Lochore Welfare invited him to training there. Levein subsequently signed for Lochore and after trials with several senior clubs he finally joined Cowdenbeath in 1981. ^[1]

Levein quickly established himself in the first team at Central Park and soon became a target for larger clubs than Cowdenbeath. In 1983 he moved to Heart of Midlothian for a fee of £40,000 and soon found himself a regular place in the Hearts first team. He made his Scotland debut in March 1990, a 1-0 win against Argentina at Hampden Park and played well enough to earn a place in Scotland's 1990 World Cup squad.

His playing career was punctuated by two separate serious knee ligament injuries, which eventually forced him into early retirement in 1995. Without such misfortune it is likely Levein would have garnered considerably more international caps and, probably, a career in the English top flight. However, it was not just injuries that kept Levein from playing during his time at Hearts; he was once given a 12 game ban after punching, and breaking the nose of, Hearts teammate Graeme Hogg during a pre-season friendly against Raith Rovers.

[edit] Coaching and managerial career

After being forced into retirement as a player, Levein had coaching positions at Hearts and at Livingston. In November 1997 he was appointed as manager of Cowdenbeath and turned a struggling team into one that could challenge for promotion. Cowdenbeath were promoted in 2001, but Levein had left in December 2000 to take over as manager at Hearts.

His time in charge of Hearts was highly successful, where he guided them to third place in the SPL in two successive seasons and thus guided them into European competition. His impressive record in Scotland caught the attention of Leicester City who appointed him as manager on 19 October 2004 ^[2].

However after a poor start to the 2005-06 season, which left the club languishing third from bottom in the Championship relegation zone, he was sacked as manager on 25 January 2006 ^[3].

Levein was appointed as manager of Scottish Second Division club Raith Rovers on 5 September 2006, on a non-contract basis ^[4]. However, after Dundee United parted company with Craig Brewster, Levein left his non-contract role at Raith Rovers to take up the job at Tannadice. He was unveiled to the press on October 30, 2006 ^[5].

[edit] Managerial record

Years	Club	Pld	W	D	L	Pts/game
1997-2000	Cowdenbeath	127	46	26	55	1.3
2000-04	Hearts	170	74	41	55	1.5
2004-06	Leicester	72	20	26	26	1.2
2006	Raith	7	1	3	3	0.9
2006-	Dundee Utd	2	2	0	0	3

[edit] References

^ The Rampant Ballboy Interviews - Craig Levein, article from When the Sun Shines fanzine, reproduced by blue-brazil.co.uk. Retrieved on 1 November 2006
^ "Leicester appoint Levein as boss", BBC Sport website, 29 October, 2004.
^ "Levein and Leicester part company", BBC Sport website, 25 January 2006.
^ "Raith appoint Levein as manager", BBC Sport website, 5 September 2006.
^ "Dundee Utd unveil Levein as boss", BBC Sport website, 30 October 2006.

[edit] External links

Official website profile
Craig Levein management career stats at Soccerbase
Craig Levein career stats at Soccerbase
Hearts playing career stats at londonhearts.com

Preceded by: ?	Cowdenbeath Manager 1997-2000	Succeeded by: Peter Cormack
Preceded by: Jim Jefferies	Hearts Manager 2000-2004	Succeeded by: John Robertson
Preceded by: Micky Adams	Leicester City Manager 2004-2006	Succeeded by: Rob Kelly
Preceded by: Gordon Dalziel	Raith Rovers Manager 2006	Succeeded by: TBA
Preceded by: Craig Brewster	Dundee United Manager 2006-	Succeeded by: Incumbent

Preceded by: John Robertson	Scottish PFA Young Player of the Year 1985	Succeeded by: Himself
Preceded by: Himself	Scottish PFA Young Player of the Year 1986	Succeeded by: Robert Fleck

	Scotland squad - 1990 World Cup
1 Leighton \| 2 McLeish \| 3 Aitken \| 4 Gough \| 5 McStay \| 6 Malpas \| 7 Johnston \| 8 Bett \| 9 McCoist \| 10 MacLeod \| 11 Gillespie \| 12 Goram \| 13 Durie \| 14 McInally \| 15 Levein \| 16 McCall \| 17 McKimmie \| 18 Collins \| 19 McPherson \| 20 McAllister \| 21 Fleck \| 22 Gunn \| Coach: Roxburgh