Monday, 28 December 2009

Craig Levein, who the heck is he?

As you probably know, the 'turnip in disguise' George Burley was sacked as Scottish manager and Dundee manager Craig Levein replaced him. But who is he?
He was born in 1964 and he started his playing career at Cowdenbeath. In 1983, aged 19 he joined Hearts for £30,000 and was named the SPFA young player of the year two years later. He also became the firat player to win this award twice, despite having a knee injury. He played 16 times for Scotland, starting in a 1-0 win against Argentina. He was forced to retire in 1997 because of a knee injury, but he swiftly entered coaching. He started at Hearts where for 18 months he coached the youth players. He then was made manager of his old club, Cowdenbeath and guided them to the top of Division 3. He then rejoined his old club Hearts. He did well at Hearts but he made an enemy of his employers, the SFA when he refused to play a £1,000 fine for criticising a referee. He refused to pay the ban and because of this, the SFA doubled the ban twice and gave him a four month touchline ban. This was not the end of it, however and Levein took the SFA to court and won, so that the fine was reduced back to £1,000 which Hearts payed for Levein. In 2004, Hearts reached 3rd in the SPL and got into the Uefa Cup group stages. At that point, however, Levein left for Championship side Leicester City with the aim of getting to the Prem. His time at the Walkers Stadium wasn't a success and Levein was sacked when Leicester were in the relegation places. Levein soon returned to Scotland to take over Raith Rovers. He didn't stay there for long and in a short time he became manager of Dundee. He did well there and because of this he was made Scotland manager. His aim is to reach the finals of Euro 2012 and the 2014 World Cup.

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