The Greatest Scottish Footballers of All Time

The game of Football, as we understand it today, has its origins in the mid-19^th century, when Cambridge University wrote up the rules for the game. Ultimately, the so-called Cambridge Rules, have had the biggest impact of on the game today. Since then, Football has become a massive success, being the most played, watched, and celebrated sport in the modern day. A rough estimate puts the number of soccer fans today at 4 billion, almost twice the size of the second biggest sport, cricket.

Football is also one of the biggest amateur sports worldwide, as billions of people play football for fun, for sport, or in amateur tournaments. Football players are some of the highest payed athletes, with the current star of the sport, Christiano Ronaldo, being the highest payed sports star in the world.

Football is also massively popular in the betting scene. In fact, it is the biggest sport among bettors. In England alone, football sees millions of pounds in revenue from the betting industry alone. Football is also very popular among online betting communities. Online sportsbooks like the ones found at helpbet.com report that football gets the highest number of bets placed out of any other sport.

Football, as we know it today, has its origins in England, and has been the most popular sports in all of Great Britain’s countries. Scotland in particular has had a long, storied history in the game of football. The country had its first appearance in the World Cup in 1954, however, the sport has been a part of Scottish culture since the late 19^th century. Many great players hailed from Scotland, and in this article we will celebrate a few of them.

Sir Kenny Dalglish

Kenny Dalglish is Scotland’s joint-top scorer, and most prominent player, with a total of 102 full caps, and 30 scored goals. Dalglish started his career at 20-years-old, playing for the Scotland Celtic, a team for which he made 338 appearances. In 1977, Dalglish joined Liverpool F.C. for which he made 515 appearances. A prominent attacking midfielder, Dalglish has won a number of awards, including the FWA Footballer of the Year award in both 1979 and 1983.

Dalglish’s career in football does not end on the court, however, as in 1985 he took over managing duties for Liverpool, after the previous manager, Joe Fagan resigned. Under Dalglish’s time as manager, Liverpool won three First Divisions, two Football Association Cups, and four Charity Shields. He is widely regarded, not just as one of Scotland’s best players, but also one of Liverpool’s best managers.

Denis Law

Denis Law shares Scotland’s top scorer title with Kenny Dalglish, with 30 goals scored over the span of his career. While not as prominent as Kenny, Denis Law has a respectable 55 full caps. Denis Law played as a forward at Second Division Huddersfield Town. Four years after he began his career, Denis was signed by Manchester City. His transfer fee set a British record for the highest transfer fee up to that point.

Apart from the numerous football awards, incuding the Ballon d’Or in 1964, in 2017, Denis Law was awarded the Freedom of Aberdeen award in 2017, and the town recently unveiled a statue of one of its favorite sons.