John Greig (born 11 September 1942) is a Scottish former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who played as a defender. He spent his entire career with Rangers, as a player, manager and director. Greig was voted "The Greatest Ever Ranger" in 1999 by the club's supporters, and has been elected to Rangers' Hall of Fame.

Early life

Greig played his youth football with United Crossroads Boys Club in Edinburgh, under the supervision of Eric Gardiner, and supported Hearts as a boy. It is unknown if Hearts showed any interest in signing him. Bob McAuley signed Greig for Rangers and despite his initial reluctance, Greig did as instructed by his father. However, after viewing a match between Rangers and Hibernian at Easter Road, where he witnessed them beating Hibs 6–1, he was convinced the move was right.

Playing career

Club

A determined, forceful player, recognised for his great leadership qualities, Greig made 755 official appearances for Rangers (498 in the domestic league, 72 in the

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,League Cup and 64 in European tournaments). He scored 120 goals for the club and won three domestic trebles. Greig actually started his career with Rangers as a forward, prior to being moved back to midfield — playing initially alongside another Rangers legend in Jim Baxter — and finally to left back. It was therefore in those initial years that he scored the majority of his goals for the club. Greig was captain when Rangers won the

European Cup Winners Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The competition's official name was originally the European Cup Winners' Cup; it was renamed the UEFA Cup Winne ...

in 1972 beating Dynamo Moscow 3–2 in

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

. Although Greig's was an enormously successful playing career, his captaincy coincided with a period of sustained success for Rangers' city rivals,

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

, from the late 1960s until the mid-1970s. Greig's fortitude during that period further cemented his reputation as one of Rangers' most celebrated captains. He was granted a testimonial match in 1978 against a Scotland XI as part of the national squad's preparations for the

1978 FIFA World Cup The 1978 FIFA World Cup was the 11th edition of the FIFA World Cup, a Anniversary#Latin-derived numerical names, quadrennial international Association football, football world championship tournament among the men's senior national teams. It wa ...

; Rangers won 5–0 before a crowd of 65,000 at Ibrox.

International

Greig played for

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

on 44 occasions, 15 as captain, between 1964 and 1975. He scored the late winner in Scotland's 1–0 victory against Italy at

Hampden Park Hampden Park ( ; Scottish Gaelic: ''Pàirc Hampden'') is a association football, football stadium in the Mount Florida area of Glasgow, Scotland, which is the national stadium of football in Scotland and home of the Scotland national football ...

on 9 November 1965 and in 1967 achieved the distinction of captaining the Scottish side who beat England 3–2 — their first defeat as World Champions — at Wembley. Greig also represented the Scottish League XI 14 times.

Managerial career

Greig's playing career ended in May 1978 when he was appointed manager of Rangers, replacing Jock Wallace. The club failed to win the league championship during Greig's time as manager, finishing no higher than the second place achieved in 1978–79. Greig's team had come close to winning a domestic treble and performed well in Europe in that first season. Rangers reached the quarter-final of the 1978–79 European Cup, defeating Italian champions

Juventus Juventus Football Club (; from , ), commonly known as Juventus or colloquially as Juve (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Turin, Piedmont, who compete in Serie A, the ...

and becoming the first club to win in European club competition at PSV's

Philips Stadion The Philips Stadion () is a Association football, football stadium in Eindhoven, Netherlands. As the home of PSV Eindhoven (Philips Sport Vereniging), it is also known as PSV Stadion. With a capacity of 35,119, it is the third-largest football s ...

, before eventual elimination to

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

. There was also the partial compensation of success in domestic cup competitions, with two

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,League Cups secured over the course of Greig's five full seasons as manager. Greig was also responsible for signing Rangers' greatest ever goalscorer

Ally McCoist Alistair Murdoch McCoist (; born 24 September 1962) is a Scottish former association football, footballer who has since worked as a Manager (association football), manager and TV pundit. McCoist began his playing career with Scottish club St Jo ...

from

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. However, these were isolated achievements, and Greig — under intense pressure from the Scottish media, Rangers supporters and the club's directors — resigned in October 1983, replaced by the returning Wallace.

Post-football career

After leaving Rangers, Greig worked as a pundit for Radio Scotland and

BBC television BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1 January 1927. It p ...

. He returned in 1990 as part of the club's public relations team.

Dick Advocaat Dirk Nicolaas "Dick" Advocaat (; born 27 September 1947) is a Dutch former association football, football player and coach. He is currently the manager of the Curaçao national football team. Advocaat was successful as a football player and as a ...

, manager of Rangers from 1998 to 2001, re-involved Greig in football coaching during which time he contributed to youth development. In 2003, he joined the Rangers

board of directors A board of directors is a governing body that supervises the activities of a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government agency. The powers, duties, and responsibilities of a board of directors are determined by government regulatio ...

. Greig resigned this position in October 2011, soon after the takeover of the club by

Craig Whyte Craig Thomas Whyte (born 18 January 1971) is a Scottish businessman best known for his controversial spell as owner of Scottish football club Rangers. Whyte first entered business in a plant hire company, after which he moved into security, ...

. Greig and John McClelland, who resigned at the same time as Greig, stated that they had been excluded from the

corporate governance Corporate governance refers to the mechanisms, processes, practices, and relations by which corporations are controlled and operated by their boards of directors, managers, shareholders, and stakeholders. Definitions "Corporate governance" may ...

of the club since Whyte had taken control. Greig later re-joined Rangers on 23 May 2015, when he was named the club's honorary life president with ambassadorial responsibilities.

Career statistics

Club

International appearances

International goals

:''Scores and results list Scotland's goal tally first''

Honours

Greig was appointed

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(MBE) on 15 November 1977. In June 2008, he was awarded

honoris causa An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hono ...

, from the

University of Glasgow The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals; ) is a Public university, public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the List of oldest universities in continuous ...

in recognition for outstanding achievement in football and continuing ambassadorship for the sport. He was appointed

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(CBE) in the

2023 Birthday Honours The 2023 King's Birthday Honours are appointments by some of the 15 Commonwealth realms of King Charles III to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. The Birthday Honours are awarded as part ...

for services to association football and the community in Scotland.

As a player

Club

;Rangers *

UEFA Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European association football, football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The competition's official name was originally the European Cup Winners' Cup; it was renam ...

: 1971–72 * Scottish League First Division/Premier Division (5): 1962–63, 1963–64, 1974–75, 1975–76, 1977–78 *

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,1962–63, 1963–64, 1965–66, 1972–73, 1975–76, 1977–78 *

Scottish League Cup The Scottish League Cup, also known as the Premier Sports Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a football competition open to all Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) clubs. First held in 1946–47, it is the oldest national League cup in ...

(4): 1963–64, 1964–65, 1975–76, 1977–78

Individual

SFWA Footballer of the Year The Scottish Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year (often called the SFWA Footballer of the Year, or simply the Scottish Footballer of the Year) is an annual award given to the player who is adjudged to have been the best of the se ...

: 1965–66, 1975–76 *Scottish Football Personality of the Year: 1978–79 * Scottish Football Hall of Fame (inaugural inductee) * Scottish Sports Hall of Fame (inaugural inductee) *

Ballon d'Or The Ballon d'Or (; ) is an annual association football, football award presented by French magazine ''France Football'' since 1956 Ballon d'Or, 1956 to honour the player deemed to have performed the best over the previous season. Conceived ...

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, ...

(18th place)

As a manager

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,1978–79, 1980–81 *

: 1978–79, 1981–82

References

External links

* *
John Greig manager profile at Rangers FC

John Greig Hall of Fame profle at Rangers FC
{{DEFAULTSORT:Greig, John 1942 births Living people Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Footballers from Edinburgh Rangers F.C. managers Rangers F.C. players Scotland men's international footballers Scottish Football League players Scottish football managers Scottish men's footballers Scottish Football Hall of Fame inductees Scottish Football League representative players Scotland men's under-23 international footballers Scottish Football League managers Men's association football defenders Directors of football clubs in Scotland

Early life

Playing career

Club

International

Managerial career

Post-football career

Career statistics

Club

International appearances

International goals

Honours

As a player

Club

Individual

As a manager

See also

References

External links