This article lists all the

captains Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

of the men's

Scotland national football team The Scotland national football team represents Scotland in men's international Association football, football and is controlled by the Scottish Football Association. They compete in three major professional tournaments: the FIFA World Cup, UEFA ...

. As of 9 June 2025, Scotland have played 842 officially recognised international matches and have had 156 different team captains.

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 ...

has captained Scotland most often, in 62 games. Four other players (

George Young George Young may refer to: Arts and entertainment * George Young (filmmaker), Australian stage manager and film director in the silent era * George Young (rock musician) (1946–2017), Australian musician, songwriter, and record producer * G ...

Billy Bremner William John Bremner (9 December 1942 – 7 December 1997) was a Scottish professional Association football, footballer who played for Leeds United F.C., Leeds United, Hull City A.F.C., Hull City, and the Scotland national football team, Scot ...

Darren Fletcher Darren Barr Fletcher (born 1 February 1984) is a Scottish football coach and former professional player who is currently serving as a first-team coach at Manchester United, where he spent the majority of his playing career and won 13 trophies i ...

and

Gary McAllister Gary McAllister MBE (born 25 December 1964) is a Scottish professional football coach and former player. McAllister played primarily as a midfielder in a career spanning over nineteen years. He started his career at local side Motherwell bef ...

) have captained the team at least 30 times. The first captain of the Scotland team was Robert Gardner, who led the team in the first ever international match, against

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

on 30 November 1872. He went on to captain Scotland on just one further occasion, the second international match, on 8 March 1873, against the same opposition.

List of captains

;Key

Statistics include official

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

recognised matches, five matches from a 1967 overseas tour that were reclassified as full internationals in 2021, and a match against a

Hong Kong League XI The Hong Kong League XI, also known as the Hong Kong XI or Hong Kong League Selection, is a football team which represents the Hong Kong First Division League in exhibition matches, mainly the Lunar New Year Cup. The team is selected from the ...

played on 23 May 2002 that the

Scottish Football Association The Scottish Football Association (; also known as the Scottish FA and the SFA) is the governing body of football in Scotland and has the ultimate responsibility for the control and development of football in Scotland. Members of the SFA incl ...

includes in its statistical totals.

Unofficial games

The above list considers captains selected for games officially recognised by

and the

. In addition to these, there have been a number of games played by Scotland teams on an unofficial basis, for example the "wartime internationals" during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Some of the captains selected for these unofficial games are listed below. *

Jimmy Brownlie James Brownlie (15 May 1885 – 29 December 1973) was a Scottish footballer and manager, who played as a goalkeeper. Career Brownlie was born in Blantyre, Lanarkshire, and was an outstanding personality in Scottish football over many years, a ...

* Jimmy Gordon * Tom Smith *

Matt Busby Sir Alexander Matthew Busby (26 May 1909 – 20 January 1994) was a Scottish football player and manager, who managed Manchester United between 1945 and 1969 and again for the second half of the 1970–71 season. He was the first manager of an E ...

Bill Shankly William Shankly (2 September 1913 – 29 September 1981) was a Scottish association football, football player and Manager (association football), manager who is best known for his time as manager of Liverpool F.C., Liverpool. Shankly brought su ...

* Tommy Walker *

Jock Shaw John Shaw (29 November 1912 – 13 June 2000) was a Scottish professional footballer who played as a defender, most famous for his time at Rangers, where he was captain between 1938 and 1950. Career Rangers signed Shaw, known as 'Tiger' for hi ...

Notes

References

External links

Scotland captains by date
London Hearts Supporters' Club {{DEFAULTSORT:List Of Scotland National Football Team Captains

Captains Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

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 ...

Association football player non-biographical articles