For a relatively small country, currently ranked 52nd in the world, Scotland haven’t half produced some cracking footballers down the years.
Honourable mentions must go to Danny McGrain, Andy Robertson and Gordon McQueen who just miss out here, but ultimately our final ten picked itself, world class practitioners of their craft all.
10) Gordon Strachan
It may initially seem like an odd comparison but the former Manchester United star shared a lot of attributes with Bernardo Silva.
Both were/are enterprising and tricky widemen, blessed with wonderful technique and close control. But, like the Portuguese schemer, Strachan was also tenacious and combative, a player who never shied from rolling his sleeves up.
He was two players rolled into one, both of an elite standard.
Such qualities would ordinarily lead to burn-out but not the Edinburgh native. The midfielder won the FWA Footballer of the Year merit aged 34.
9) Alan Hansen
Remember that scene in Back To The Future, when Marty McFly plays rock n roll to a bemused audience before telling them, “Your kids are going to love it.”
That was Hansen playing centre-back in the English top-flight across the Nineteen-Eighties.
Perhaps rock n roll isn’t quite appropriate in this analogy, the Scot being an elegant defender who very much kept his emotions in check on the pitch.
But still, by excelling as a cultured ball-playing stopper when the mores of the day demanded that centre-backs were grizzled, non-nonsense bruisers Hansen offered crowds a tantalising glimpse into the distant future.
8) Billy McNeil
A European Cup-winning captain, ‘Cesar’ was a colossus at the back for Celtic for nigh-on two decades. A leader. A totem. And most pertinently, one of the greatest defenders Britain has ever produced.
Devoutly a one-club man until he moved into management post-retirement, McNeil played just shy of 500 times for the Hoops, leading them to 23 trophies.
It will always be that continental success he will most be associated with though. The Lisbon Lion with the loudest roar.
7) Billy Bremner
Bremner was gritty and pugnacious, the kind of player hated by rival fans but if he played for your club he was an icon.
That club, for the most part, was Leeds United who the midfielder led to two league championships and a European Cup final across their Seventies heyday.
Out of possession, his boots were hobnailed and laced with venom. With the ball at his feet they became carpet slippers, Bremner an exquisite passer from any range.
He would absolutely thrive in the modern era.
Still, he will chiefly be recalled for his battling qualities, the Times once brilliantly summing him up as ‘10st of barbed wire’.
6) Jimmy Johnstone
Johnstone’s wing wizardry perfectly epitomised the adventure and inventiveness that coursed through a sublime Celtic team that won nine consecutive league titles.
A blur of flamed hair, twisting and turning down the touchline, ‘Jinky’ was hugely admired worldwide for his speed, extraordinary balance, but mostly his wiles. In any given situation he always found a way to beat his man and get a cross in.
Should the winger once voted Celtic’s greatest ever player be around today he would be a scourge of the live betting markets, transforming a game’s narrative with a moment of pure magic.
5) Dave Mackay
The formidable Scot was the guvnor of every side he played in, a hard-as-nails midfielder who also epitomised the one-touch football that Tottenham’s fabulous double-winning side of the early Sixties was known for.
According to Brian Clough, Mackay was Spurs’ finest ever player while George Best deemed him his toughest opponent. Team-mates at Hearts, his first club, nicknamed him ‘Iron Man’.
Yet, from all of the testimonies, one word from the million that accompanied his sad passing in 2015 stands out, perfectly encapsulating this rare talent. He was ‘complete’.
4) Jim Baxter
It’s a hoary old cliché to imagine what a great player from the past would be worth today, but with Baxter it feels especially apt.
The wing-half who famously taunted England at Wembley in 1967 by juggling with the ball, was tactically astute, comfortable with both feet, and had vision to spare.
His passing was immaculate, difficult through-balls made to appear easy. The Rangers legend was a 21st century footballer gracing the muddy fields of the 1960s.
So what would his market value be in 2024? Let’s just say that Manchester City or Real Madrid could have afforded him at a push.
3) Graeme Souness
Souness is the third Scottish midfielder on this list who was feared for his combative nature, but who could also put playmakers to shame with their passing and touch.
Additionally, he was good for a goal too, with a shot that typically replicated an Exocet missile on leaving his boot.
A force of nature, fuelled largely by anger, Souness dominated centre-circles for six years at Liverpool, winning the league five times, before showing off the silkier side to his game at Sampdoria in Italy.
In short, he was ferocious, dirty, hugely impactful and magnificent, and there is the small matter of captaining the Reds to three European Cup triumphs too.
2) Denis Law
A third of Manchester United’s holy trinity of otherworldly legends, the Lawman bagged 227 goals in 485 appearances at club level and added a record number of 30 for his country.
Aged 21, an ill-fated stint in Italy with Torino saw him struggle against the ultra-defensive set-ups out there, while a car crash meant the football odds were long on him fulfilling his destiny to become an all-time great.
That was until United swooped in 1962, bringing him back to Manchester where he had previously scored a shed-load of goals for neighbours City. Two years later he won the Ballon d’Or.
1) Kenny Dalglish
There is a reason why Sir Kenneth Mathieson Dalglish is called the king, and there is a reason why he has a stand named after him at Anfield.
Quite simply, it’s because the talent he displayed for Celtic, Liverpool and Scotland over twenty years was, and remains, unparalleled. He was British football’s Maradona. Our Pele.
Such was his immense ability he was a whole level above players who are rightfully venerated still, who rightfully inhabit halls of fame.
The heroic manner in which he held a grief-stricken community together post-Hillsborough then went on to reveal that the measure of the man equals that of his footballing prowess.
*Credit for the main photo belongs to Alamy*
