Stephen James Craigan (born 29 October 1976) is a Northern Irish 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 ...

. He played in central defence and spent his entire playing career in Scotland, playing for

Motherwell Motherwell (, ) is a List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Shires of Scotland, Historically in the p ...

(twice) and

Partick Thistle Partick Thistle Football Club are a professional association football, football club from Glasgow, Scotland and currently plays in the . Despite their name, the club are based at Firhill Stadium in the Maryhill area of the city, and have not ...

. He has also played for the Northern Ireland national team. He is a pundit for Viaplay's coverage of the

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 ...

Club career

A boyhood

Glentoran Glentoran Football Club is a professional football club based in East Belfast, Northern Ireland, that plays in the NIFL Premiership. The club was founded in 1882 and has since won more than 130 major honours. They are one of three Northern Iris ...

fan, Craigan started his career in Scotland with Motherwell in 1994 when he was signed by

Alex McLeish Alexander McLeish (born 21 January 1959) is a Scottish professional football manager and former player. He played as a defender for Aberdeen during their 1980s glory years, making nearly 500 League appearances for the club, and won 77 caps f ...

. However, after only twenty-six appearances, he was released on a free transfer. He signed for

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 ...

club

in 2000 and helped them back to the

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 ...

, making 121 appearances. After his contract expired in 2003, he returned to Motherwell, who were then managed by former

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 ...

international

Terry Butcher Terry Ian Butcher (born 28 December 1958) is an English football manager and former player. During his playing career as a defender, Butcher captained the England national team, winning 77 caps in a ten-year international career that feature ...

. Since then, Craigan has been an integral part of Motherwell's steady progress in the league. Craigan has since gone on to become Motherwell's most capped player. He works for

BBC Radio Scotland BBC Radio Scotland is a Scottish national radio network owned and operated by BBC Scotland, a division of the BBC. It broadcasts a wide variety of programmes. It replaced the Scottish BBC Radio 4 opt-out service of the same name from 23 N ...

, also commentated on some European matches for Setanta Sports and ESPN. Craigan is a regular pundit on

Sky Sports News Radio Sky Sports News Radio was a British online radio station broadcasting sports news, results and information 24 hours a day that lasted for 4 years, from June 2010 to September 2014. It was a sister service to the television channel Sky Sports New ...

, rounding up the weekly hot topics in the Scottish Premiership. In January 2008, Craigan was made

club captain The captain of a football/soccer team, sometimes known as the skipper, is a team member chosen to be the on-pitch leader of the team; they are often one of the older or more experienced members of the squad, or a player that can heavily influ ...

of Motherwell, taking over from Phil O'Donnell, who died after collapsing on the pitch during a match against

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 ...

on 29 December 2007. In June 2009, Craigan was appointed the player-

caretaker manager In association footballing terms, a caretaker manager or interim manager is somebody who takes temporary charge of the management of a football team, usually when the regular manager is dismissed or leaves for a different club. However, a caret ...

of Motherwell while the club looked for a replacement for

Mark McGhee Mark Edward McGhee (born 25 May 1957) is a Scottish former professional football player and coach. A former forward, McGhee started his career at Greenock Morton in 1975 and had spells at clubs including Newcastle United, Aberdeen, Hamburg, ...

, who departed for

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

. This temporary appointment ended when

Jim Gannon James Paul Gannon (born 7 September 1968) is a professional football manager and former player who most recently was manager of Hyde United. He started and finished his career as a player in Ireland but made most of his professional appearanc ...

was hired as the new manager. He endured a troubled relationship with Gannon, featuring in only seven of the seventeen league games he was in charge at Motherwell after being publicly criticised by the manager, but returned to regular first-team action under Craig Brown. On 16 April 2011 Craigan scored his first goal since 2006 with a header to open the scoring in the

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,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 ...

, which Motherwell won 3–0 to advance to the 2011 Scottish Cup Final. On 9 June 2011, Craigan signed a new one-year contract at Motherwell. Craigan was awarded a testimonial match, against his former club

. He scored the only goal of the game, on 13 July 2011. On 9 May 2012, Craigan announced that he would retire after Motherwell's last game of the

2011–12 Scottish Premier League The 2011–12 Scottish Premier League was the fourteenth season of the Scottish Premier League, the highest division of Scottish football, since its inception in 1998. The season started on 23 July 2011 and ended on 13 May 2012. A total of twe ...

season. On 29 October 2021, it was announced that Craigan was to be inducted into the Motherwell F.C. Hall of Fame.

International career

Craigan is

's record cap holder, having received 54 caps for

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

while playing for the club. Craigan played in their 1–0 victory against

in September 2005 and the 3–2 win over

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

a year later. He captained his country on their end of season tour in 2010 against

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

and

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

and continued as captain against

Montenegro , image_flag = Flag of Montenegro.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Montenegro.svg , coa_size = 80 , national_motto = , national_anthem = () , image_map = Europe-Mont ...

on 11 August 2010. His 50th cap came in a surprise victory away to

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

on 3 September 2010, in their first game of the Euro 2012 campaign. On 19 July 2011, Craigan announced his retirement from International football, earning 54 caps, the last of those coming against

Coaching career

Craigan has made steady strides into management. As well as being caretaker manager for Motherwell in 2009, he was named assistant manager of the Northern Ireland Under-19 squad on 11 October 2012. He also continued working as a football pundit for radio and television. In July 2015, Craigan was appointed manager of Motherwell's under-20 team. After manager

Ian Baraclough Ian Robert Baraclough (; born 4 December 1970) is an English football manager and former player who is currently sporting director at Partick Thistle, of the Scottish Championship. His most recent role had been a short spell as assistant manager ...

left the club in September, Craigan was put in temporary control of the first team.

Media career

Since

BT Sport TNT Sports (formerly BT Sport) is a group of pay television sports channels in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Now owned by Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe, Warner Bros. Discovery and BT Group, they first launched as B ...

took over

ESPN UK TNT Sports 4 is a British sports television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery Sports and the BT Group. It is part of the TNT Sports group of channels in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The channel was established by ESPN Inc. on August 3 ...

's rights to the

SPFL The Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) is the national men's association football league in Scotland. The league was formed in June 2013 following a merger between the Scottish Premier League and the Scottish Football League. As well ...

in 2013, Craigan's journeyman football career has been superseded by his work as a studio pundit on the network, regularly appearing alongside Darrell Currie, and fellow pundits

Chris Sutton Christopher Roy Sutton (born 10 March 1973) is an English former professional football player and manager. He later became a pundit, commentator and presenter of football coverage on television and radio. Sutton played from 1991 to 2007 for No ...

and

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 the start of the 2016–17 season Craigan has also appeared on

's coverage of the

, working as an analyst and co-commentator, alongside

Rob MacLean Robin "Rob" MacLean (born 1958 in Invergordon) is a Scottish television presenter, football commentator and sports writer. He currently works for BBC Scotland and TNT_Sports_(United_Kingdom), TNT Sports. MacLean began his career with the Highla ...

or Rory Hamilton. He also works as a pundit on Premier Sport's coverage of Scottish Football.

Career statistics

International

NI games played by Stephen Craigan
NIfootball

References

External links

Stephen Craigan profile
at Motherwell FC official website * {{DEFAULTSORT:Craigan, Stephen 1976 births Living people Sportspeople from Newtownards Association footballers from County Down Men's association footballers from Northern Ireland Men's association football defenders Northern Ireland men's B international footballers Northern Ireland men's international footballers Scottish Premier League players Scottish Football League players Motherwell F.C. players Partick Thistle F.C. players Association football managers from Northern Ireland Motherwell F.C. managers Motherwell F.C. non-playing staff