Paul Hartley

Early career

Hartley was born in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire. Hartley started his senior career at Hamilton Academical, where he spent two seasons. Millwall paid £380,000 to gain his services in July 1996; this remained Hamilton's biggest sale until James McCarthy moved to Wigan Athletic for an initial £1.2 million in 2009. Hartley returned to Scotland a year later, joining Raith Rovers for £150,000, before moving to Hibernian in 1998, whom he helped win the First Division in 1998–99. In season 1999–2000, he spent a short spell on loan at Greenock Morton.

St Johnstone

St Johnstone manager Sandy Clark, who had previously managed Hartley at Hamilton, signed Hartley for a £200,000 fee in 2000. Billy Stark, who succeeded Clark in 2001, started using Hartley as a central attacking midfielder during the 2001–02 season. This change of position from his previous role as a right winger, coincided with a significant upturn in his performances, but it was not enough to prevent St Johnstone's relegation to the First Division. Hartley's personal success continued as he was nominated for the SPFA First Division player of the year award in 2003, but his team failed to gain promotion back to the SPL in 2003.

Hearts

Hearts signed Hartley on a free transfer when his contract with St Johnstone expired in the summer of 2003. He helped Hearts to third place in the Premier League in 2003–04 and starring in their subsequent UEFA Cup run. In January 2005, Celtic…

Hartley's first experiences of international football took place right at the beginning of his professional career when he was selected by manager Craig Brown as a training squad player for Euro 96. His performances for Hearts earned him international recognition in December 2004, when he appeared for Scotland B against Germany B in Mannheim. He won his first full Scotland cap the following year on the 26 March 2005, against Italy in the San Siro. Hartley scored his only international goal in a 3–0 win over Slovenia on 12 October 2005.

Alloa Athletic

Hartley was appointed manager at Alloa Athletic on 17 May 2011, to get Alloa back into the second division having been relegated the season before. He had to rebuild the squad as every player's contract had expired; only three were offered new contracts and only one accepted. Hartley managed to get a full squad together and Alloa won the title on 7 April 2012. He led the side to a successive promotion through the Scottish First Division play-offs in May 2013, relegating Dunfermline Athletic in the process. He resigned after the 5–1 loss against Dumbarton on 18 January 2014.

Dundee

Hartley signed for Dundee as manager on 5 February 2014, replacing John Brown. He led the Dee to the Scottish Championship title on the final day and promotion to the Scottish Premiership. Dundee went unbeaten in their first 8 games of the season including a 1–1 draw with Celtic. Hartley then declined an offer to manage Cardiff City. Dundee went on to finish sixth in the Premiership, and finished eighth in the following season. Hartley was sacked by Dundee in April 2017, after a run of seven consecutive defeats left them in a relegation play-off position.

Falkirk

Hartley was appointed Falkirk manager on 4 October 2017, succeeding Peter Houston. After a bad start to the 2018–19 season, Hartley left Falkirk on 27 August 2018.

Cove Rangers

Hartley joined newly promoted Scottish League Two club Cove Rangers in July 2019, succeeding John Sheran as…

Club

International

Score and result list Scotland's goal tally first, score column indicates score after Hartley goal.

Managerial record

As of match played 19 September 2026