Stephen McManus

Celtic

McManus came through the ranks at Celtic and signed a professional contract on the same day as fellow defender John Kennedy. He made his debut for the first team, under Martin O'Neill, in the 2003–04 season against Hibernian, and finished that season with five league appearances as Celtic won the title. He later established himself as first choice central defender at Celtic during Gordon Strachan's managerial reign. In the 2005–06 season, McManus scored eight goals (seven of which came in the League). He was made captain for the first league game of the 2006–07 season, in the match against Kilmarnock due to regular club captain Neil Lennon being suspended. Since that game he repeatedly deputised as Celtic captain throughout the 2006–07 season. After Lennon left Celtic to join Nottingham Forest, McManus was announced as Celtic's new captain on 31 July 2007 and signed a four-year contract. He said:

"To be given the captaincy of Celtic is a tremendous honour. It is undoubtedly one of the highlights of my career so far. I'm proud to follow in the footsteps of so many great Celtic captains from the past and I hope that I will be able to achieve as much success as they have over the years." On 3 October 2007, McManus scored to put Celtic a goal ahead against Milan at Celtic Park in the group stages of the UEFA Champions League. The match ended 2–1 in Celtic's favour with Kaká equalising for Milan before Scott McDonald scored a late winner for Celtic. McManus lifted…

McManus earned his first cap at international level for Scotland on 11 October 2006, coming on as a substitute in the 2–0 defeat to Ukraine at the Olympic Stadium in Kyiv. McManus scored his first goal for Scotland in a 3–1 win against Lithuania on 8 September 2007, turning a Shaun Maloney cross into the net to put Scotland 2–1 up. He captained Scotland for the first time on 26 March 2008 in a friendly match against Croatia at Hampden Park, in the absence of regular captain Barry Ferguson. The game finished 1–1. On 10 September 2008, McManus was sent off for a deliberate handball in a FIFA World Cup qualifier against Iceland at Laugardalsvöllur in Reykjavík. He used his right hand to tip the crossed ball over the crossbar to stop approaching Icelandic striker Heiðar Helguson from scoring a goal, while Scotland were leading 2–0. The penalty kick was converted to make the score 2–1, which was the final score. On 7 September 2010 McManus scored a dramatic 97th minute winning header for Scotland in their 2–1 victory over Liechtenstein. His 26th and final cap came in October 2010, in a 3–2 defeat to Spain.

After retiring in 2017, McManus took a coaching position with Motherwell. He returned to Celtic in January 2019 as a coach of their under-18 team.

McManus was born in Hamilton, Lanarkshire. He attended Holy Cross RC Secondary School in Hamilton, the school which international and former club teammate Paul Hartley also attended. McManus and Hartley used to have a competition at training to see who could name the most teachers and the loser picked up all the balls. In 2008, after a Champions League game against Barcelona, McManus swapped jerseys with Leo Messi but has since lost it. His nickname is "Mick" because he shares his surname with 1970s professional wrestler Mick McManus. His second cousin Kris Doolan was also a footballer, mainly for Partick Thistle.