Graham Alexander

Graham Alexander

Personal information
Full name	Graham Alexander
Height	5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Position(s)	Defender
Team information
Current team	Burnley
Number	2
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 22:08, 26 March 2008 (UTC)

Graham Alexander (born 10 October 1971 in Coventry, West Midlands) is an international Scottish footballer, playing for Burnley F.C in the English Football League Championship as a defender but can play as a midfielder as he did early on in his career with Scunthorpe United.

Club career

Alexander began his career in the late 1980's as a youth player with Scunthorpe United and in 1991 he signed his first professional contract, quickly becoming a member of the first team. Alexander made over 200 appearances at Scunthorpe before moving to Luton Town for a transfer fee of £100,000. He went on to make a similar number of appearances with Luton in his four years with the club.

In 1999 two clubs were vying for his signature; Burnley and Preston North End. Both clubs made offers for the player but Alexander opted for a move to Preston. He became a first team regular at Deepdale, eventually club captain and an established set-piece taker, particularly in penalties. In the 2000/2001 season Alexander missed several weeks of the season after breaking his rib in an away match against Wolverhampton Wanderers. During his eight years at Preston, Alexander became the club's then-longest serving player, making 400 appearances with his 400th coming against Colchester on August 25 2007. He was also in the PFA's Championship Team of the Season for 2004/05

During the summer of 2007 a number of clubs were linked with Alexander including Crystal Palace who had a £50,000 bid turned down by Preston, who said;

"He is club captain and a vital member of this squad and certainly not a player we will allow to leave."

On August 29 2007, he made a surprise move to local rivals Burnley almost 9 years after they had originally tried to sign him. The reasons cited for his departure were that Preston would not extend his contract by another year so when offered a two year contract by Burnley the player accepted and made a £200,000 move to Turf Moor. Preston Chairman Derek Shaw did not want to lose the player and said;

"We don't particularly want to sell Graham but he has the comfort of a two-year contract at Burnley whereas he only has one year here at Deepdale. We quite possibly would have renewed Graham's contract, he's a fit man."

Following Alexander's departure, Preston manager Paul Simpson also made similar comment regarding the player's departure but insisted he did not want to offer a 2-year contract to a 35 year old. The £200,000 transfer money was made up of £100,000 payable in 2007 and the final £100,000 payable in the summer of 2008.

International career

Though Alexander was born in England he was eligible for the Scotland national team through his Scottish father. The player had said in interviews that playing for Scotland was one of his main ambitions in football, this ambition was fulfilled when he made his debut on April 17, 2002 in the 2-1 friendly loss to Nigeria at the Pittodrie Stadium. In 2006, he gained his 25th cap in a victory against France, the same year he won the annual Japanese Kirin Cup with Scotland, beating Bulgaria 5-1 before drawing 0-0 with hosts Japan.

External links

• Profile on Burnley's Official site
• UEFA stats for Euro 2008 qualifiers
• Graham Alexander at Soccerbase