Ryan Hardie (born 17 March 1997) 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

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

for club

Wrexham Wrexham ( ; ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in the North East Wales, north-east of Wales. It lies between the Cambrian Mountains, Welsh mountains and the lower River Dee, Wales, Dee Valley, near the England–Wales border, borde ...

. Hardie started his career with

Rangers A ranger is typically someone in a law enforcement or military/paramilitary role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called "ranging" or "scouting". The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with prot ...

, and was loaned by them to

Raith Rovers Raith Rovers Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the town of Kirkcaldy, Fife. The club was founded in 1883 and currently competes in the as a member of the Scottish Professional Football League. The club has won f ...

, St Mirren and Livingston. In July 2019 he moved to English club

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside town in Lancashire, England. It is located on the Irish Sea coast of the Fylde peninsula, approximately north of Liverpool and west of Preston, Lancashire, Preston. It is the main settlement in the Borough of Blackpool ...

, with whom he remained for 18 months, before signing for

Plymouth Argyle Plymouth Argyle Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Plymouth, Devon, England. The team currently competes in EFL League One, the third level of the English football league system. The club has played ...

in January 2021. In June 2025, Hardie signed for

Hardie has represented Scotland at youth internationals up to and including the Under-21 level.

Club career

Rangers

Hardie, from

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 ...

, is a boyhood Rangers fan. He made his professional debut for the team in a League Cup match against

Falkirk Falkirk ( ; ; ) is a town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland, historically within the county of Stirlingshire. It lies in the Forth Valley, northwest of Edinburgh and northeast of Glasgow. Falkirk had a resident population of 32,422 at the ...

on 23 September 1 2014, replacing

Dean Shiels Dean Andrew Shiels (born 1 February 1985) is a Northern Irish former footballer and current manager, who last managed Coleraine. He played for Hibernian, Doncaster Rovers, Kilmarnock, Rangers, Dundalk, FC Edmonton and Dunfermline Athletic, and ...

for the last four minutes of a 3–1 win at the

Falkirk Stadium The Falkirk Stadium is an all-seater association football, football stadium in Falkirk, central Scotland, which is the home ground of Scottish Premiership club Falkirk F.C., Falkirk and Lowland Football League club East Stirlingshire F.C., East ...

. He was first called up for a league game on 15 November, remaining an unused substitute in a 1–1 draw with

Alloa Athletic Alloa Athletic Football Club is a Scottish association football semi-professional club based in the town of Alloa, Clackmannanshire. They compete in as a member of the Scottish Professional Football League. According to the official club hist ...

at Ibrox. On 28 March 2015, he made his

Scottish Championship The Scottish Championship known as the William Hill (bookmaker), William Hill Championship for sponsorship reasons, is the second tier of the Scottish Professional Football League, the league competition for men's professional association footb ...

debut, replacing

Nicky Clark Nicholas Alexander McCormack Clark (born 3 June 1991) is a Scottish professional footballer who plays as a striker for club St Johnstone. Clark is the son of the former Airdrieonians, Hearts, Rangers and West Ham striker Sandy Clark. Care ...

for the final 16 minutes of a 4–1 home win over

Cowdenbeath Cowdenbeath () is a town and burgh in west Fife, Scotland. It is north-east of Dunfermline and north of the capital, Edinburgh. The town grew up around the extensive coalfields of the area and became a police burgh in 1890. According to a 20 ...

. Hardie's first start was on 18 April away to

Dumbarton Dumbarton (; , or ; or , meaning 'fort of the Britons (historical), Britons') is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland, on the north bank of the River Clyde where the River Leven, Dunbartonshire, River Leven flows into the Clyde estuary. ...

and he scored his first two professional goals as they came from behind to win 3–1, the second being an

overhead kick In association football, a bicycle kick, also known as an overhead kick or scissors kick, is an acrobatic strike where a player kicks an airborne Ball (association football), ball rearward in midair. It is achieved by throwing the body backwar ...

from

Lee Wallace Lee Wallace (born 1 August 1987) is a Scottish former professional footballer. He represented the Scotland national team with 10 caps. Wallace started his career Heart of Midlothian, making his debut in 2005 at age seventeen, and joined Ran ...

's cross. On 17 February 2016, Hardie was loaned out to

on an initial month-long loan; however, this was extended to the end of the season a month later. On 25 July 2016, Hardie joined

club St Mirren on loan until January 2017. He made his debut in the League Cup against Edinburgh City on 30 July 2016. Hardie moved on loan again to Raith Rovers in January 2017, on a deal until May 2017. In January 2018, he returned to the second tier of Scottish football, this time signing a six-month loan deal with Livingston. Upon his return to Rangers, Hardie signed a one-year contract extension to tie him to the club until 2019. Hardie again signed on loan for Livingston for the first part of the 2018–19 season. In January 2019 he signed another one-year contract with Rangers, and returned on loan to Livingston.

Blackpool

Hardie moved to

EFL League One The English Football League One, known as Sky Bet League One for sponsorship reasons, or simply League One, is a professional association football league in England. EFL League One is the second-highest division of the English Football League an ...

club

for an undisclosed fee in July 2019. He scored his first goal for Blackpool when he scored in an

EFL Trophy The English Football League Trophy, officially known as the Vertu Motors, Vertu Trophy for sponsorship reasons, is an annual English association football, football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL League Two and ...

tie against

Morecambe Morecambe ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the City of Lancaster district of Lancashire, England, on Morecambe Bay, part of the Irish Sea. In 2011 the parish had a population of 34,768. Name The first use of the name was by John Whit ...

on 3 September 2019. He signed on loan for

for the rest of the 2019–20 season on 9 January 2020. On 29 July, he returned to Plymouth on loan until the end of the 2020–21 season.

Plymouth Argyle

Halfway through his second loan spell at the club, Hardie completed a permanent move on 29 January 2021. On 25 May 2023, Hardie signed a new three-year contract with Plymouth after finishing the 2022–23 League One season as the club's top scorer with 17 goals. Later that year, on 5 August, he scored his 50th goal for the club in 164 appearances during a 3–1 victory over

Huddersfield Town Huddersfield Town Association Football Club is a professional association football club based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England. They compete in , the third tier of English football league system, English football. Huddersfield Town we ...

. On 1 February 2025, Hardie scored his 100th career goal 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 ...

at Home Park. On 9 February 2025, he scored a

penalty Penalty, The Penalty, Penalization, Penalisation, Penalize or Penalise may refer to: Sports * Foul (sports) ** Penalty (golf) ** Penalty (gridiron football) ** Penalty (ice hockey) ** Penalty (rugby) ** Penalty (rugby union) ** Penalty kick (assoc ...

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 ...

and UEFA Champions League league phase leaders

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

to knock them out of the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

International career

Hardie has represented Scotland at various age levels. Hardie was selected for the Scotland U17 team in the UEFA under-17 Championship in

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

, where the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

beat them in the semi-finals. He was selected for the under-20 squad in the

2017 Toulon Tournament The 2017 Toulon Tournament (officially ) was the 45th edition of the Toulon Tournament. The tournament was named after Maurice Revello, who started the tournament in 1967 and died in 2016. It was held in the department of Bouches-du-Rhône from 29 ...

. After a historic first ever win against

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

, the first at any level, Scotland later won the bronze medal. It was the nations first ever medal at the competition.

Career statistics

Honours

Plymouth Argyle *

2022–23 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 ...

runner-up:

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hardie, Ryan 1997 births Living people Sportspeople from Stranraer Scottish men's footballers Men's association football forwards Scotland men's youth international footballers Scotland men's under-21 international footballers Scottish Professional Football League players English Football League players Rangers F.C. players St Mirren F.C. players Raith Rovers F.C. players Livingston F.C. players Blackpool F.C. players Plymouth Argyle F.C. players Wrexham A.F.C. players 21st-century Scottish sportsmen