Neil Alexander

Early career

Alexander started his career with local youth side Edina Hibs in Niddrie, Edinburgh and attracted interest from Arbroath, agreeing scholarship terms with the club. However, at the age of 18, Alexander was spotted by Stenhousemuir manager Terry Christie while playing for Edina. Christie had initially gone to watch the side play at a public park with his son after the team coach Bill Harper recommended one of the sides defenders to him but instead spotted Alexander and immediately signed him for Stenhousemuir, despite not knowing his name at the time. Christie later remarked "You could see the talent he (Alexander) had in that one game. He was streets ahead of everyone else". After establishing himself in the first-team for two seasons, he moved to Livingston in 1998, where he was part of Scottish Second Division and Scottish First Division title-winning sides during a three-year spell. During his time at the club, Alexander attracted attention from various British clubs including Everton and old firm duo Rangers and Celtic.

Cardiff City

On 28 May 2001, he joined Football League Second Division side Cardiff City for a nominal fee of £130,000, with chairman Sam Hammam stating his belief that Alexander had the potential to play at international level in the future. The club had been rejected on several occasions prior to this when attempting to sign a new goalkeeper, failing in bids to sign Andy Marriott, Stewart Kerr and Jamie Langfield, and had…

Having represented Scotland at under-21 level on ten occasions, Alexander was first called up for Scotland at the age of 24 during the summer 2002 Far East tour but did not receive a cap. He was called up a second time in August 2002 for a UEFA Euro 2004 qualifying group match against Faroe Islands after Neil Sullivan was forced to withdraw due to injury. He remained a regular call-up for Scotland squads for several years before eventually making his Scotland debut as a 49th-minute substitute in place of Craig Gordon during a 3–1 defeat to Switzerland on 1 March 2006 in a friendly match, a cap which his Cardiff manager Dave Jones described as "deserved". Alexander also played a part in Scotland's 2006 Kirin Cup win and played both matches against Bulgaria and Japan.

Alexander retired from playing in June 2018, and was appointed goalkeeping coach at Dundee United. He left the club in July 2021. In March 2022 Alexander joined John Hughes's Dunfermline Athletic backroom team as goalkeeping coach following the departure of Owain Fon Williams. Due to injuries, Dunfermline registered Alexander as a player for the remainder of the season and he immediately went in to the match day squad versus Arbroath as a substitute. In 2022, Alexander became goalkeeping coach at Motherwell F.C.

Born in Edinburgh, Alexander grew up as a fan of Heart of Midlothian and idolised striker John Robertson, despite his father Jim being a fan of their Edinburgh rivals Hibernian. As a teenager, Alexander attended Balerno Community High School.