Jackie McNamara

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

John Robert "Jackie" McNamara (born 24 October 1973 in Glasgow, Scotland) is a Scottish professional footballer, who currently plays for Falkirk in the Scottish Premier League^[1]. He is a former Scottish international. He played in the 1998 FIFA World Cup and has filled a variety of defensive roles in his international career.

[edit] Football career

[edit] Dunfermline Athletic

The son of former Celtic and Hibernian player Jackie McNamara, Sr., he started his career at Dunfermline Athletic as an attacking right wing-back.

[edit] Celtic

McNamara moved to Celtic for £650,000 in 1995. He marked an impressive start to his Celtic career, being named Scottish PFA Young Player of the Year in 1996. He won his first trophy with the club in the 1997-1998 season when Celtic won the Scottish Premier Division, preventing arch-rivals Rangers F.C. from winning 10-in-a-row, which would have seen them eclipse Celtic's record of 9-in-a-row. He featured regularly in the Celtic first eleven until the arrival of Martin O'Neill in the 2000-01 season saw him become more of a fringe player, although he did score the opening goal in the 2001 Scottish Cup Final.

However, McNamara became a consistent player for Celtic during the later part of O'Neill's tenure, being awarded the Football Writers Player of the Year in 2004. The following year McNamara was named captain when then-captain Paul Lambert was injured and missed much of the season. McNamara proved himself a consistent and reliable performer on the field, playing almost every game in the league in the 2004-05 season.

To reward his loyalty to the club over a 10-year period, Celtic played a testimonial match against the Republic of Ireland. The match ended 1-0 to Ireland, with Robbie Keane scoring. At the end of the 2004-05 season Martin O'Neill left as manager and Celtic brought in Gordon Strachan as his replacement.

McNamara's contract was also due to expire at the end of the 2004-05 season. Strachan assured McNamara that he wanted him at the club^[2] but Celtic were slow to offer a new contract, waiting until the close season to do so. By that time McNamara had already accepted an offer from Wolverhampton Wanderers as he had assumed Celtic no longer wanted his services.^[3] As he went on record saying he still wanted to play for the club, he was told he was still needed by the club by its manager, and he was offered the contract he wanted while still in a position to accept it, the incident has caused much speculation amongst supporters and the media as to who was to blame for his departure from Celtic. The club accused McNamara of being unreasonable and of moving for monetary reasons. They also blamed his agent for not encouraging negotiations and setting unhelpful deadlines.^[4]

McNamara had gone on record as saying he wanted to end his career with Celtic^[5] and seemed to be bemused when no new contract was forthcoming. After he had accepted the Wolves offer, McNamara felt that Celtic showed a lack of respect to him in their comments to the media and he accused them of harming his reputation for their own benefit. It also emerged that in his new contract at Wolves, he was earning the same wages as his previous contract with Celtic.^[6]

[edit] Wolverhampton Wanderers

However McNamara did not feel the contract offered was sufficient, and it was in acrimonious circumstances that he left to join Wolverhampton Wanderers in the summer of 2005 on a free transfer under the Bosman ruling.

After a promising start to his Wolves career, McNamara sustained a cruciate knee ligament injury in the home match with Leicester City in September 2005. He came back in the penultimate game of the 2005/06 season at home to Brighton and Hove Albion.

[edit] Aberdeen

McNamara joined Aberdeen from Wolves on a two-year contract in 2007,^[7] but he left Pittodrie before the end of the season, with manager Jimmy Calderwood citing "travelling and injuries" as the reasons for his departure.^[8] Three weeks later, it was revealed that McNamara would join Falkirk for the 2008-09 season.^[9]

[edit] Falkirk

On 13 May 2008 McNamara signed a two year contract at Falkirk.

[edit] Honours

Scottish Premier League: 1998, 2001, 2002, 2004

Scottish Cup: 1995, 2001, 2004

Scottish League Cup: 1998, 2000, 2001

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Jackie McNamara career stats at Soccerbase

v • d • e Scotland squad – 1998 FIFA World Cup 1 Leighton • 2 McNamara • 3 Boyd • 4 Calderwood • 5 Hendry • 6 T. McKinlay • 7 Gallacher • 8 Burley • 9 Durie • 10 Jackson • 11 Collins • 12 Sullivan • 13 Donnelly • 14 Lambert • 15 Gemmill • 16 Weir • 17 B. McKinlay • 18 Elliott • 19 Whyte • 20 Booth • 21 Gould • 22 Dailly • Coach: Brown