Graham Alexander

Graham Alexander
Alexander in 2023
Personal information
Full name Graham Alexander[1]
Date of birth (1971-10-10) 10 October 1971 (age 53)[2]
Place of birth Coventry,[1] England
Height 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)[2]
Position(s) Right-back, defensive midfielder
Team information
Current team
Bradford City (manager)
Youth career
1988–1990 Scunthorpe United
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1988–1995 Scunthorpe United 159 (18)
1995–1999 Luton Town 150 (15)
1999–2007 Preston North End 352 (52)
2007–2011 Burnley 154 (20)
2011–2012 Preston North End 18 (2)
Total 833 (107)
International career
2002–2009 Scotland 40 (0)
Managerial career
2011–2012 Preston North End (caretaker)
2012–2015 Fleetwood Town
2016–2018 Scunthorpe United
2018–2020 Salford City
2021–2022 Motherwell
2023 Milton Keynes Dons
2023– Bradford City
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Graham Alexander (born 10 October 1971) is a professional football coach and former player who manages Bradford City. In a lengthy playing career, Alexander represented Scunthorpe United, Luton Town, Preston North End and Burnley. He also made 40 international appearances for Scotland.

For most of his career, Alexander played as a specialist at right-back, but was also deployed in defensive midfield[3] early on in his career with Scunthorpe. He is the fourth oldest player to score in Premier League history.[4] He was also a penalty kick specialist. On 16 April 2011, in Burnley's win over Swansea City in a Championship match, Alexander became only the second outfield player in English football history to have made 1,000 professional appearances, after Tony Ford.[5] He is third on the list of footballers in England by number of league appearances.

Alexander was appointed manager of Fleetwood Town in December 2012. He won the 2013–14 League Two play-offs and promotion to League One, but was sacked by Fleetwood in September 2015. He then managed Scunthorpe United for two years before being appointed manager of newly promoted National League club Salford City on 14 May 2018. Alexander guided Salford to promotion in his first season, but was sacked in October 2020. He then had 18 months as manager of Scottish club Motherwell.

  1. ^ a b "Graham Alexander". Barry Hugman's Footballers. Retrieved 4 March 2021.
  2. ^ a b Hugman, Barry J., ed. (2008). The PFA Footballers' Who's Who 2008–09. Mainstream. ISBN 978-1-84596-324-8.
  3. ^ Alexander The Seventh![permanent dead link]
  4. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 20 October 2009. Retrieved 31 October 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  5. ^ "Burnley 2–1 Swansea". BBC Sport. 14 April 2011. Retrieved 14 April 2011.