Barry Ferguson

Barry Ferguson (born 2 February 1978) is a Scottish football coach, former player and pundit who was most recently the manager of Alloa Athletic.

Ferguson spent most of his playing career at Rangers, in two spells either side of a £7.5 million transfer to English club Blackburn Rovers.

Born in Hamilton into a Rangers-supporting family, Ferguson's older brother, Derek, had played for the club in the same position in the 1980s, with the younger sibling often being invited behind the scenes at Ibrox Stadium as a child.

Around the age of 8 he began playing for Mill United in Hamilton.

In his early teens, although highly rated, he suffered rejection by the Scotland Schoolboys, at trials in Largs, due to his 5 ft stature.

He made it into the last thirty or so candidates, however.

"When I got out of the car, I went up and lay on my bed and thought to myself, 'You know what? I'm going to go and show them.'" "The same thing happened at Rangers. There was a father and son, and they were both from Ayrshire, and they were taking us at Rangers for the under-15s. We were playing Celtic, and I got took to the side and told, 'Listen, it's too physical a game for you. We're not going to play you.' And I went away again and said to myself, 'Either throw the towel in, or go and prove these people wrong.' Two or three years later, you're beginning to chap the first-team door, and you're walking past [the people who said you wouldn't make it] and they're saying, 'I knew you were going to do it.'"

Having trained with Rangers since 1991, Ferguson signed a professional contract upon finishing his education at Brannock High School in 1994.

Aside from his brother, Ferguson's idol was Ian Durrant, who was still an important player when he joined the club.

Ferguson was promoted to the first-team squad for the 1996–97 season.

He made his debut on the last day of that season against Hearts on 10 May 1997.

He made a number of sporadic appearances the following season under manager Walter Smith's policy of easing him into the first team.

Ferguson made 45 appearances for the Scotland national team, starting from 1998.

Ferguson became a regular fixture in the first team during the 1998–99 season under new manager Dick Advocaat (displacing fellow youth graduate Charlie Miller).

The Dutchman soon secured Ferguson on a long-term contract as he became an important member of the squad.

He scored his first career goal in a League Cup match against Alloa Athletic on 18 August 1998, and played against his brother on three occasions during that season when Rangers faced Dunfermline Athletic, with a 20-year-old Ferguson scoring his first league goal in the match at East End Park.

His brother, then 31 years old, made his last appearance at Ibrox in the reverse fixture.

Injury prevented him from being involved in the 1998–99 season run-in as the club achieved the treble; Ferguson watched the 1999 Scottish Cup final from the stands as Rangers won by a single goal, scored by Rod Wallace three minutes into the second half.

Ferguson was so influential the following season that he was given an extended six-year deal at Rangers in October 1999.

He was named the Scottish Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year for 1999–2000, a season in which Rangers retained the Premier League and Scottish Cup, beating Aberdeen in the final.

He totalled 431 games and 60 goals for Rangers, whom he captained between 2000 and 2003 and again between 2005 and 2009.

Ferguson received minor facial injuries after engaging in a drunken hotel brawl following a 6–2 defeat to Celtic in August 2000.

After being sent off in the match, he had made obscene gestures to the crowd and then went drinking in Bothwell in his club tracksuit.

When the club crashed out of the UEFA Champions League group stage at the hands of AS Monaco, largely because of a mistake by captain Lorenzo Amoruso, the Italian was stripped of the captaincy and it instead went to the 22-year-old Ferguson.

An incident in which two bags of ice were thrown at the Celtic dug-out during a 2–0 defeat at Ibrox in September 2001 was attributed to Ferguson, who was criticised for his petulance and immaturity.

Celtic manager Martin O'Neill played down the incident, saying he thought the ice had been thrown by his club's doctor.

The young Ferguson went on to successfully guide his team to a League Cup and Scottish Cup later that season under manager Alex McLeish, who had replaced Advocaat in December 2001.

In the latter final, another Old Firm clash, Ferguson tied the score at 2–2 with a free kick (Peter Lovenkrands scored the winning goal).

During their second season together, 2002–03, Ferguson captained the side to a domestic treble.

After scoring 18 goals from midfield, he also won Scottish Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year and Scottish PFA Players' Player of the Year.

Ferguson won the Scottish Premier League, Scottish Cup and Scottish League Cup five times apiece for Rangers, including a treble in 2003, which earned him the honour of SFWA Footballer of the Year.

On 29 August 2003, Ferguson joined Premier League club Blackburn Rovers for a fee of £7.5 million.

With Everton also chasing Ferguson, Rangers had initially denied that he was leaving.

He also helped Rangers to reach the 2008 UEFA Cup final.

In 2009, following behavioural incidents while on national duty, he was stripped of the captaincy of Rangers and told he would no longer be considered for international selection.

Later in his career, he returned to England with Birmingham City, Blackpool and Fleetwood Town.

Towards the end of his playing spell with Blackpool, he served as caretaker manager of the club.

Ferguson was appointed player-manager of Clyde in June 2014; he resigned from this position in February 2017.

He became manager of Kelty Hearts in October 2018, and he left them in May 2021 after guiding them to promotion to the SPFL for the first time.

Ferguson then became manager of Alloa Athletic soon after, but left the club on 14 February after a run of one win in eleven games.