Lee McCulloch

Lee McCulloch

Personal information
Full name	Lee Henry McCulloch
Date of birth	14 May 1978 (1978-05-14)
Place of birth	Bellshill, Scotland
Height	1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Playing position	Centre midfielder
Club information
Current club	Rangers
Number	6
Youth career
	Rangers
	Cumbernauld United
1995–1996	Motherwell
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1996–2001	Motherwell	124	(21)
2001–2007	Wigan Athletic	224	(44)
2007–	Rangers	104	(9)
National team‡
2003	Scotland B	1	(0)
2004–	Scotland	18	(1)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 18 February 2012. † Appearances (Goals). ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 14 November 2010

Lee Henry McCulloch (born 14 May 1978) is a Scottish association footballer who currently plays for Scottish Premier League side Rangers.

He has been capped on 18 occasions by the Scotland national football team. During his career McCulloch has played for Motherwell, Wigan Athletic and Rangers as club level. He started his career as a striker but played as a winger, attacking midfielder for Wigan and now is considered as a holding midfielder for Rangers. Occasionally McCulloch had been deployed as a central defender by former Rangers manager Walter Smith and has also appeared up front with the club.

Club career

Motherwell

McCulloch started his career as a forward at Cumbernauld United, having previously played at Rangers boys club alongside Barry Ferguson. He was spotted by Motherwell and signed for them in the summer of 1995. McCulloch went on to score 27 goals in 147 appearances after making his debut against on 24 August 1996. He scored his first and second goals in a league match against Hibernian on 31 January 1998.

After netting 12 and nine goals in consecutive seasons for Motherwell, along with some impressive performances other clubs began to take notice of the young striker.

Wigan Athletic

He signed for Wigan Athletic in March 2001 for £700,000, a then club signing record. Wigan at this point were playing their trade in the third tier of English football, but were strongly ambitious, and saw the young Scotsman as part of their long term plans. He made his debut against Swindon Town on 3 March 2001 and scored his first goal for the club four weeks later, in a 2–1 win away to Wycombe Wanderers.

During his English league career, McCulloch found himself increasingly operating in a left midfield role, and this is the position he mainly played in during Wigan's first season in the Premier League in 2005–06. He weighed in with five league goals in thirty appearances, helping Wigan to a 10th place finish, and appeared as a substitute for Wigan in the 2006 League Cup Final.

In January 2007, McCulloch was the subject of a £750,000 bid by Rangers. It was turned down by Wigan and labelled "derisory" by manager Paul Jewell. In May 2007, McCulloch told BBC Sport that he would relish the opportunity to play for Rangers, and the new manager at Wigan Athletic advised him that he may leave to move back to Scotland. On 23 June, Rangers had a bid of £1.5million rejected with Wigan said to want £2.5m for McCulloch, who had notched 46 goals in 241 matches for them.

Rangers

On 11 July 2007, Rangers revealed that they had agreed an undisclosed fee with Wigan for McCulloch. After agreeing personal terms and passing a medical, he signed a four-year deal later in the day with a transfer fee of £2.25m to join his boyhood heroes. McCulloch started his Rangers career with a goal on his debut in a two-nil victory over FK Zeta on 31 July 2007. On 2 October 2007 in the 2007-08 UEFA Champions League, he scored the first goal, a header from a corner by DaMarcus Beasley in Rangers' monumental 3–0 victory at the Stade de Gerland against Olympique Lyonnais.

On 23 December in a match with Aberdeen, McCulloch was sent off after 37 minutes after jumping at Aberdeen's Scott Severin as a mass brawl started, after Aberdeen's Chris Clark had scythed down Rangers defender Alan Hutton the tackle was a reaction to an incident involving Hutton and Clark minutes earlier when the Rangers defender got booked for a needless lunge at Clark. McCulloch was the only player to be dismissed in the heated match. Later that season McCulloch played in the 2008 UEFA Cup Final, the 2008 Scottish League Cup Final and the 2008 Scottish Cup Final. Rangers lost the UEFA Cup Final but won a domestic cup double.

In his second season at Ibrox, McCulloch was again plagued with injuries. However, he did also manage to play for the club at central defence and as a defensive midfielder. In the first game of the 2009–10 season McCulloch scored a long range goal against Falkirk in a 4–1 win. The following match he scored his second goal of the season against Hearts. A header from a free kick that equalised for Rangers before Kris Boyd scored the winner in the 89th minute. On 3 January 2010 in the second Old Firm game of the season, McCulloch scored a header from a corner to tie the game 1–1. This was McCulloch first ever Old Firm goal. McCulloch has become a regular in central midfield as of 2009–10 season.

On 12 August 2010, Rangers announced that McCulloch had signed a two-year contract extension, keeping him at the club until 2013. His first game of the 2010-11 season came against St. Johnstone in which he set up the winner. McCulloch then went on to feature 27 times until it was revealed, after limping off against Hearts, he would require surgery to cure a cyst on his knee joint.

International career

McCulloch earned his first international call-up to the Scotland national side in 2004, under the then manager Berti Vogts, and made his debut as a late substitute in a 1–1 draw with Moldova, a match which transpired to be Vogts' last match as manager.

Since the appointment of Walter Smith in 2004, he has featured in the squad intermittently. He featured in Smith's first three matches as manager against Italy, Moldova and Belarus and was involved in the Kirin Cup matches against Bulgaria and Japan. He played in Scotland's famous 1–0 win over France in October 2006 and then in the equally famous reverse fixture, which Scotland also won 1–0.

He scored his first international goal in Scotland's Euro 2008 qualifying win over Ukraine. It was the second goal in a 3–1 victory at Hampden Park in October 2007.

McCulloch retired from international football on 8 September 2008 as he wanted to concentrate on his club commitments. McCulloch was recalled to the national team following the appointment of Craig Levein and he made his first appearance since 2008 in a qualifier against Lithuania in September 2010.

International goals

Scores and results list Scotland's goal tally first.

Goal	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	13 October 2007	Hampden Park, Glasgow	Ukraine	2–0	3–1	UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying

Career statistics

As of 18 February 2012

Club	Season	League		Cup		League Cup		Other		Total
		Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Motherwell	1995–96	2	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	3	0
	1996–97	15	0	3	0	0	0	0	0	18	0
	1997–98	24	2	4	0	2	0	0	0	30	2
	1998–99	27	3	3	1	2	0	0	0	32	4
	1999-00	30	9	4	2	1	1	0	0	35	12
	2000–01	26	7	1	1	2	1	0	0	29	9
	Total	124	21	15	4	7	2	1	0	147	27
Wigan Athletic	2000–01	10	3	0	0	0	0	1	0	11	3
	2001–02	34	6	1	0	0	0	1	0	36	6
	2002–03	38	6	1	0	2	0	0	0	41	6
	2003–04	41	6	1	0	3	1	0	0	45	7
	2004–05	42	14	0	0	1	0	0	0	43	14
	2005–06	30	5	1	0	4	0	0	0	35	5
	2006–07	29	4	1	1	0	0	0	0	30	5
	Total	224	44	5	1	10	1	2	0	241	46
Rangers	2007–08	22	3	6	2	3	0	15	2	46	7
	2008–09	12	0	4	0	2	0	2	0	20	0
	2009–10	34	5	4	0	3	1	6	1	47	7
	2010–11	21	0	1	0	3	1	5	0	30	1
	2011–12	15	1	0	0	1	0	3	0	19	1
	Total	104	9	15	2	12	2	31	3	162	16
Career Total		452	74	35	7	29	5	34	3	550	89

Honours

Wigan Athletic

• English Second Division (1): 2003

Rangers

• Scottish Premier League (3): 2009, 2010, 2011

• Scottish Cup (2): 2008, 2009

• Scottish League Cup (3): 2008, 2010, 2011

External links

• Lee McCulloch career stats at Soccerbase
• Lee McCulloch at scottishfa.co.uk