Jim Leighton

Aberdeen

Leighton joined Aberdeen from Scottish Junior club Dalry Thistle in 1977, after working in the civil service on leaving school. Before breaking into the Aberdeen first team he was loaned out for one season to Highland League club Deveronvale, where he is now an inductee of the club's Hall of Fame. Leighton achieved his greatest success under the management of Alex Ferguson in the early to mid-1980s. With Leighton in goal, Ferguson's Aberdeen won Premier Division titles in 1984 and 1985, the Scottish Cup four times, the Scottish League Cup once, and the European Cup Winners' Cup and Super Cup in 1983. Brian Clough, a notorious critic of other goalkeepers for the national team during the 1970s and 1980s, has been reported as saying "Jim Leighton is a rare bird – a Scottish goalkeeper that can be relied on."

Manchester United

Ferguson, who had left Aberdeen to manage Manchester United in 1986, signed Leighton for £750,000 in 1988. In his first season with United, the club finished 11th. Leighton conceded 35 league goals and kept 14 clean sheets, while he conceded more than two goals only once in all competitions. In 1989–90 United finished two places lower in the league in 13th. Leighton played when United were defeated 5–1 in the league by newly promoted neighbours Manchester City, and conceded three goals in 1990 FA Cup Final, a 3–3 draw with Crystal Palace. He was then dropped from the United starting lineup for the replay, in which Les Sealey made…

Leighton became Aberdeen's goalkeeping coach after retiring as a player. He parted company with the club in August 2009 when manager Mark McGhee (his former teammate, who had also brought him to Reading years earlier) chose to replace him with Colin Meldrum. In February 2010 he was appointed as goalkeeping coach for Huntly in the Highland League. Leighton was reappointed as the goalkeeping coach at Aberdeen on 13 December 2010, the first act of the new management team of Craig Brown and Archie Knox; he left the club again at the request of manager Derek McInnes, at the end of the 2014–15 season. He commented soon afterwards that he would look for work outside football, as he was unwilling to relocate from Aberdeen due to other work and family commitments, and subsequently became a sales manager for companies providing services to the city's offshore industry.

Club

International

Deveronvale

Bells Cup East: 1977–78 Aberdeen 'A'

SFL Reserve Cup: 1978–79 Aberdeenshire Cup: 1980–81, 1982–83 Aberdeen

Scottish Premier Division: 1983–84, 1984–85 Scottish Cup: 1981–82, 1982–83, 1983–84, 1985–86 Scottish League Cup: 1985–86 Drybrough Cup: 1980–81 European Cup Winners' Cup: 1982–83 European Super Cup: 1983 Manchester United

FA Cup: 1989–90 FA Charity Shield: 1990 (shared) Dundee

Scottish Football League First Division (second tier): 1991–92 Scotland

The Rous Cup: 1985 Individual

Scotland national football team roll of honour: 1989 Scottish Football Hall of Fame inductee: 2008 Aberdeen FC Hall of Fame inductee: 2004 Deveronvale FC Hall of Fame Inductee: 2019