ROBERT DOUGLAS (FOOTBALLER)

'Robert James "Rab" Douglas' (born 24 April 1972 in Lanark) is a Scottish footballer currently playing for Leicester City. He is a goalkeeper and is also a former Scotland international. As a boy, Douglas was a Motherwell supporter.

Contents

Career

Celtic

Leicester

International

Refrences

External links

Career

Celtic

Douglas, formerly of Dundee F.C., had been a regular member of Celtic's team and played an instrumental role in Celtic's run to the 2003 UEFA Cup final. However, during the 2004/05 season he faced stiff competition from youngster David Marshall and Magnus Hedman and at the end of the season was told by Celtic's then manager, Martin O'Neill, that he would not be first choice for next season. Douglas decided that he wanted to test himself in England, rather than sit on the bench, and joined Leicester City on a free transfer.
While he was considered a good goalkeeper by many fans at Dundee, the same could not be said for his time at Celtic. A portion of the fans labelled him "Butterfingers Douglas". However, he did gain over 100 appearances for the club, and was a key part of the team that reached the 2002/03 UEFA Cup final. He was also considered a key player in Celtic's Scottish Premier League domestic title wins in 2000/2001 and 2001/2002.

Leicester

His performances have been erratic for Leicester, with inconsistency between good and poor performances. Among the fans he has been labeled either 'Rab C. Nesbitt' or 'The Brickie', the former partially due to his appearance. His future at the Walkers Stadium was under threat after being replaced late in the 2005/06 season by Paul Henderson and promising performances by former youth academy goalkeeper Conrad Logan. Therefore he had been out of the first team squad for some time.
On June 7 2007 Rab was placed on the transfer list alongside Mark de Vries and Alan Maybury.^[1] Douglas was handed a trial spell at Motherwell on 21 August,^[2] but was unable to agree a deal with the ''The Steelmen''.^[3]

International

Douglas was a regular for the Scotland national team from 2002. However, after an awful 6-0 loss to Holland away in Amsterdam in a 2003 playoff for qualification to the Euro 2004 Competition, for which he was largely blamed - including an incident where he was photographed having closed his eyes when one of the goals was allowed in - Douglas lost his position as first team goalkeeper.
It was on a night when his Scotland career never really recovered and he played just once more under Berti Vogts against Wales in a 4-0 defeat. He was recalled to the Scotland Squad in 2005 under manager Walter Smith where he played against Italy in a World Cup Qualifier but was taken off injured soon after the game had started. He has missed selection for the last couple of squads and after a brief period of Paul Gallacher being the first team goalkeeper, Craig Gordon took over as first team goalkeeper in 2004.
His last appearance for Scotland was in August 2005, when he came on as a second half substitute in a 2-2 friendly draw against Austria.^[4]

Refrences

1. Duo Listed
2. Keeper Douglas starts Well trial, BBC Sport 2007-08-21. Retreived on 2007-08-31.
3. Motherwell lose Douglas, BBC Sport 2007-08-31. Retreived on 2007-08-31.
4. Austria 2-2 Scotland, BBC Sport 2005-08-17. Retreived on 2007-09-04.

External links

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