Barry James Douglas (born 4 September 1989) is a Scottish 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 plays as a

left-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

for

Scottish Premiership The Scottish Premiership, also known as the William Hill (bookmaker), William Hill Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Scotland and the highest level of the Scottish football league system. Th ...

club

St Johnstone St Johnstone Football Club is a professional association football club in Perth, Scotland. The team competes in the , the second division of Scottish football. The club's name is derived from St John's Toun (or Saint Johnstoun)—an old name o ...

. After playing for Queen's Park and

Dundee United Dundee United Football Club is a Scotland, Scottish professional association football, football club based in the city of Dundee. Formed in 1909, originally as Dundee Hibernian, the club changed to the present name in 1923. United are nickname ...

in Scotland, he joined Polish club

Lech Poznań Kolejowy Klub Sportowy Lech Poznań S.A., commonly referred to as KKS Lech Poznań or simply Lech Poznań (), is a Polish professional football club based in Poznań and currently competing in the Ekstraklasa, the nation's highest division. ...

in 2013, where he won the

2014–15 Ekstraklasa The 2014–15 Ekstraklasa (also known as T-Mobile Ekstraklasa due to its Sponsor (commercial), sponsorship by T-Mobile Polska) was the 81st season of Sports league, the highest level of football leagues in the Polish football league system since ...

title. He signed for

Konyaspor Konyaspor Kulübü (, Konya Sports Club), commonly referred to as Konyaspor, is a Turkish professional football club based in Konya, one of the largest cities in central Anatolia. Due to sponsorship agreements, the club is also officially known ...

in Turkey in 2016, after which he joined

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club ( ), commonly referred to as Wolves, is a professional association football, football club based in Wolverhampton, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league s ...

in 2017. Douglas enjoyed a successful season with Wolves, winning the

2017–18 EFL Championship The 2017–18 EFL Championship (referred to as the Sky Bet Championship for sponsorship reasons) was the second season of the EFL Championship under its current name, and the twenty-sixth season under its current league structure. This season nota ...

and making his full international debut. He joined

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The team compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league system. Leeds United have won the League Championship th ...

in July 2018, where he won the

2019–20 EFL Championship The 2019–20 EFL Championship (referred to as the Sky Bet Championship for sponsorship reasons) was the 4th season of the EFL Championship under its current title and the 28th season under its current league division format. Leeds United won th ...

under Manager

Marcelo Bielsa Marcelo Alberto Bielsa Caldera (, nicknamed ''El Loco Bielsa'' , meaning 'The Madman Bielsa'; born 21 July 1955) is an Argentine professional Association football, football manager who is the current manager of the Uruguay national football team ...

Club career

Queens Park

Douglas was born in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

and raised in the city's

Pollok Pollok (, ) is a large housing estate on the south-western side of the city of Glasgow, Scotland. The estate was built either side of World War II to house families from the overcrowded inner city. Housing 30,000 at its peak, its population ha ...

district.Douglas was educated at Mosspark Primary School and Rosshall Academy where he met future Dundee United teammate Scott Allan He played for Livingston's youth teams, but was released at the age of sixteen because he was considered "too small". He then spent a year out of football before joining Queen's Park, becoming part of their first team squad in 2008. He made his senior debut in August 2008 in a

Scottish Second Division The Scottish Football League Second Division was the third tier of the Scottish football league system between 1975 and 2013. History The Second Division was created in 1975, as part of a wider reconstruction of the Scottish Football League (SF ...

match against

Stranraer Stranraer ( , in Scotland also ; ), also known as The Toon or The Cleyhole, is a town in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, on Loch Ryan and the northern side of the isthmus joining the Rhins of Galloway to the mainland. Stranraer is Dumfries ...

, and went on to become a first team regular for Queen's Park, playing for the amateur club part-time while also working as a refrigeration engineer and serving an apprenticeship in the trade. His performances saw him linked with a number of professional clubs, despite Queen's Park being relegated to the Third Division in 2009. Douglas continued to impress at the lower level, scoring nine goals from his full-back position during the 2009–10 season. He finished the season as Queen's Park's top scorer.

Dundee United

On 20 June 2010, he signed professionally with

Scottish Premier League The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the Scottish football league system, top-level league competition for professional Association football, football clubs in Scotland. The league was founded in 1998, when it broke away from the Scottish Foo ...

club

. His debut for his new club came in August of that year, as a substitute against

Inverness Caledonian Thistle Inverness Caledonian Thistle Football Club, commonly known as Caley Thistle, Inverness CT or just Inverness, is a professional football club based in Inverness, Scotland. The team competes in , the third tier of the Scottish Professional Footba ...

in the SPL. He spent three seasons at

Tannadice Tannadice Park, officially known as The CalForth Construction Arena for sponsorship reasons, is a football stadium in Dundee, Scotland. It is the home ground of Dundee United F.C., who have played at Tannadice since the club was founded as Du ...

; the player signed by United to replace him in the position,

Andrew Robertson Andrew Henry Robertson (born 11 March 1994) is a Scottish professional footballer who plays at left-back for club Liverpool and captains the Scotland national team. He is regarded as one of the best left-backs of his generation and one of th ...

, also moved from Queen's Park, leading to disputes between the clubs as Dundee United had used the amateur status of Queen's Park and Douglas to avoid paying a transfer fee, and attempted to do the same with Robertson.

Lech Poznań

On 28 May 2013, Douglas signed a two-year deal with Polish club

. He made his debut against

Widzew Łódź RTS Widzew Łódź () is a Polish football (soccer), football club based in Łódź. The club was founded in 1910. Its official colours are red and white, hence their nicknames ''Czerwona Armia'' (Red Army) and ''Czerwono-biało-czerwoni'' (Red-wh ...

in a 1–0 win on 29 September 2013. His first goal for the club came on 3 August 2014, from a freekick in a 3–2 defeat against

Wisła Kraków Towarzystwo Sportowe Wisła Kraków Spółka Akcyjna, commonly referred to as Wisła Kraków (), is a Polish professional football club based in Kraków. They currently compete in the I liga, the second level of Polish football league system, ...

. He scored a freekick on 6 March 2015 against

Jagiellonia Białystok Jagiellonia Białystok () is a Polish professional football club based in Białystok that plays in the Ekstraklasa, the top level of Polish football. The club was founded in 1920 by soldiers in the 42nd Infantry Regiment Reserve Battalion in Bi ...

in a 2–0 victory, before scoring another on 22 March in a 2–1 win over Wisła Kraków. He played 27 times as Lech won the Polish league championship in 2014–15, and the subsequent

Super Cup A super cup is a competition, in association football, basketball, handball, volleyball and rugby union which often forms the 'curtain raiser' to a season, and typically involves only two teams who have qualified through success in other competi ...

. He scored from another freekick for Poznań in the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

qualification phase against

FK Sarajevo Fudbalski klub Sarajevo ( sh-Cyrl, Фудбалски клуб Сарајево; , English language, English: Sarajevo Football Club), is a professional Association football, football Sports club, club based in Sarajevo, the capital city of Bosn ...

on 22 July 2015. He made 75 appearances in all competitions for the club, scoring 5 goals.

Konyaspor

Douglas signed for Turkish

Süper Lig The Süper Lig (, ''Super League''), also known as Trendyol Süper Lig for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Turkey and the highest level of the Turkish football league system. In the 2023–2024 season, twen ...

team

in January 2016. He played his first league match against Galatasaray on 6 February 2016. With Konyaspor, Douglas reached the

2016–17 Turkish Cup The 2016–17 Turkish Cup () is the 55th season of the Turkish Cup. Ziraat Bankası is the sponsor of the tournament, thus the sponsored name is Ziraat Turkish Cup. The winners will earn a berth in the group stage of the 2017–18 UEFA Europa L ...

final and played the full game as they defeated

İstanbul Başakşehir Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

on penalties. He played 45 times in all competitions during his spell, including four games in the

2016–17 UEFA Europa League The 2016–17 UEFA Europa League was the 46th season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the eighth season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League. The final was played between Ajax and ...

Wolverhampton Wanderers

On 1 July 2017, he was signed by manager

Nuno Espírito Santo Nuno Herlander Simões Espírito Santo (born 25 January 1974), known as Nuno Espírito Santo or simply Nuno, is a Portuguese-São Toméan Manager (association football), football manager and former Football player, player who played as a Goalkee ...

for English

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

club

for an undisclosed fee on a two-year deal with a year's option in the club's favour. He made his debut for the club on 5 August 2017 in a 1–0 win against

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ), colloquially known as Boro, is a port town in the Borough of Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England. Lying to the south of the River Tees, Middlesbrough forms part of the Teesside Built up area, built-up area and the Tees Va ...

at Molineux. He scored his first goal a week later, in a 2–0 win away against

Derby County Derby County Football Club () is a professional association football club in Derby, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English football league system. One of the 12 founder members of the English Football ...

. On 22 November 2017, Douglas scored a long range freekick in a 4–1 win against

. He was nominated for the

EFL Championship The English Football League Championship, known simply as the Championship and for sponsorship purposes as Sky Bet Championship, is a professional association football league in England and Wales. Contested by 24 clubs, it is the highest divi ...

Player of The Month award for November 2017. Douglas picked up a winner's medal during the

with Wolves winning the league, contributing five goals and 14 assists from the left back position. His tally of assists also saw him finish joint-top (with

Robert Snodgrass Robert Snodgrass (born 7 September 1987) is a Scottish former professional association football, footballer who played as a Midfielder#Winger, winger. Snodgrass started his senior career with Livingston F.C., Livingston. He also had a loan spe ...

) of the relevant charts in the EFL Championship.

Leeds United

2018–19

On 28 July 2018,

side

signed Douglas for an undisclosed fee (roughly £3 million) on a three-year contract. He was given the number 3 shirt for the season. He made his debut and got an assist in the opening game of the 2018–19 season on 5 August 2018 against

Stoke City Stoke City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England. The team competes in the , the second level of the English football league system. Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, the cl ...

at Elland Road in a 3–1 win. Douglas had injury problems in the beginning of 2019, which resulted in him missing several games, which saw Gjanni Alioski slot into his left back position whilst out injured, and on 30 March, Douglas, in obvious distress, played through a ruptured knee ligament, as all three substitutes had been used, in a tightly fought 3–2 win over

Millwall Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Poplar, north of Greenwich and Deptford, east of ...

. The injury ruled the Scot out for the remainder of the season, including playoffs. During an injury-hit 2018–19 season, Douglas played 27 games in all competitions, making 5 assists. Leeds finished the regular season in third place, dropping out of the automatic promotion places with three games left after a defeat to ten-man

Wigan Athletic Wigan Athletic Football Club is a professional association football club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The team competes in the EFL League One, the third level of the English football league system. Founded in 1932, they have p ...

on 19 April. With Douglas' season already ended by injury, Leeds lost to

in the playoff semi-finals.

2019–20

After three months out injured, Douglas returned from injury on 10 July in a pre-season friendly 5–0 win against

York City York City Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of York, North Yorkshire, England. The team competes in the National League, the fifth level of the English football league system, as of the 2024–25 seas ...

. He started the season as Leeds' first choice left back, but after a series of injuries, he found himself out of the side behind Gjanni Alioski. After an impressive half time substitute appearance against

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club (), commonly known as West Brom or The Albion, is a professional association football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the Englis ...

on 1 January 2020, head coach

said Douglas would start against

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

side

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

in the third round of the

F.A. Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competition i ...

. Douglas played the full 90 minutes of the cup tie, which Arsenal won 1–0 but was substituted for Alioski during

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an off ...

's late win at

Elland Road Elland Road, or Elland Road Stadium, is a football stadium in Beeston, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, which has been the Home (sports), home of Leeds United F.C., Leeds United since the club's formation in 1919. The stadium is the List of foot ...

on 11 January. After the English professional football season was paused in March 2020 due to

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on association football The COVID-19 pandemic caused disruption to association football (also known as soccer) across the world, mirroring its impact across all sports. Across the world to varying degrees, leagues and competitions had been cancelled or postponed. Clu ...

, the season was resumed during June, where Douglas earned promotion with Leeds to the

and also become the

Champions for the 2019–20 season in July after the successful resumption of the season.

2020–21

His first start of the

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

season came on 16 September 2020 for

Leeds in a 1–1 draw against

Hull City Hull City Association Football Club is a professional association football club based in Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. They compete in the , the second level of the English football league system. They play their home ...

in the

EFL Cup The English Football League Cup, often referred to as the League Cup and currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout competition in men's domestic football in England. Orga ...

(Hull went on to win 9–8 on penalties). Douglas was loaned to Championship club

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second level of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...

on 16 October 2020 until the end of the 2020–21 season. In May 2021, he was released by Leeds at the expiry of his contract.

Return to Lech Poznań

On 2 July 2021, Douglas returned to Poland, signing a two-year contract with Lech Poznań. In his first

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

back at the club, Douglas made 15 Ekstraklasa appearances and won his second Polish league title. In May 2023, he extended his deal for another twelve months. A year later, it was announced Douglas would leave the club upon the expiration of his contract.

St Johnstone

On 21 October 2024, Douglas returned to Scotland, joining

on a contract until the end of the season.

International career

Douglas was selected for the Scotland national team in March 2018. He made his international debut on 27 March, coming on as a substitute for

in a 1–0 win against

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

Style of play

Douglas plays either as a

left back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

or a

left wing-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

. He is also known for his free-kick and set piece ability.

Trivia

In August 2019, Douglas was one of the main stars of

documentary 'Take Us Home' on

Amazon Prime Amazon Prime (styled as prime) is a paid subscription service of Amazon which is available in many countries and gives users access to additional services otherwise unavailable or available at a premium to other Amazon customers. Services inclu ...

, featuring in several episodes, the documentary was narrated by

Academy Award The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...

winning actor and Leeds United fan

Russell Crowe Russell Ira Crowe (born 7 April 1964) is an actor and film director. Russell Crowe filmography, His work on screen has earned him List of awards and nominations received by Russell Crowe, various accolades, including an Academy Award, two Gold ...

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Lech Poznań *

Ekstraklasa (; meaning "Extra Class" in Polish), officially known as PKO Bank Polski Ekstraklasa due to its Sponsor (commercial), sponsorship by PKO Bank Polski, is a professional association football league in Poland and the highest level of the Polish foo ...

: 2014–15, 2021–22 *

Polish Super Cup The Polish Super Cup (, ) is an annually held match between the champions of the Ekstraklasa and the Polish Cup winners or, if the Ekstraklasa champions also win the Polish Cup, the Cup's runners-up. As of 2024, the Polish Super Cup has been ...

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

Konyaspor *

Turkish Cup The Turkish Cup () is a football cup competition in Turkish football, run by the Turkish Football Federation since 1962. During a brief sponsorship period with Fortis, its sponsored name was ''Fortis Türkiye Kupası''. Now Ziraat Bankası is ...

: 2016–17 Wolverhampton Wanderers *

: 2017–18 Leeds United *EFL Championship: 2019–20

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Douglas, Barry 1989 births Living people Footballers from Glasgow Scottish men's footballers Men's association football fullbacks Scotland men's international footballers Scottish Premier League players Scottish Football League players Ekstraklasa players III liga players II liga players Süper Lig players English Football League players Livingston F.C. players Queen's Park F.C. players Dundee United F.C. players Lech Poznań players Lech Poznań II players Konyaspor footballers Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. players Leeds United F.C. players Blackburn Rovers F.C. players St Johnstone F.C. players Scottish expatriate men's footballers Scottish expatriate sportspeople in Poland Expatriate men's footballers in Poland Scottish expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Expatriate men's footballers in Turkey 21st-century Scottish sportsmen