Scotland's Best Sporting Professionals

Andy Murray Achievements in 2016 

Andy Murray is the first British singles Tennis player to top the world rankings emulating his brother who is currently number one in the men’s doubles rankings as well.  Before he bet Djokovic on the 20^th of November, he was world number two for the past 76 weeks, by beating the Serbian Murray put an end to his 122 weeks as World number one and propelled himself to the number one spot for the first time in his career. It has been quite a year for Andy he has been, quite unbelievable, in 11 finals in his last 12 ATP tour events.

 

2016 has been the most successful year in Andy Murray's career

 

Chris Hoy

The cyclist was born in Edinburgh and has said to been inspired by the classic 1982 film E.T.  Before track cycling, Hoy raced BMX between the ages of 7 and 14 and was ranked second in Britain, fifth in Europe, and ninth in the world.  Athens 2000 was the first Olympics Chris Hoy participated earing his first medal.  It was silver alongside Jason Queally and Craig MacLean in the Team Sprint.  Overall, Hoy is undoubtedly the most well-known Scottish athlete in cycling of all time. The Scotsman has eleven world championship titles and is a six times Olympic champion therefore he is the 2^nd most decorated Olympic athlete of all time.

 

Sir Chis Hoy is Britain's second most successful

 

Kenny Dalgish

 

Dalgish more commonly known as “King Kenny,” was a Scottish football player.  The striker played for Celtic between the years 1969-1977 and Liverpool between 1977-1990 after a spell as ‘player-manager’ from 1985 onwards.  In total he scored 230 goals in 559 matches for his clubs and also played over 100 games for the Scottish National Team.  In 1981, Dalgish won the European Cub and the league cup with Liverpool alongside a young Ian Rush.  Kenny Dalgish has won 4 league titles with Celtic and 6 first division wins in England with Liverpool.  Many say that he was the best ever Scottish football player.

 

'King Kenny' is considered one of Scotland's most gifted footballers

 

 

Billy McNeill

Billy McNeill was the captain of the Lisbon Lions Celtic team when they beat Inter Milan 2-1 to win the European cup.  He spent 18 years with Celtic, playing 486 games earning the nickname Cesar.  The captain also played 29 games for the Scottish nation team and scored 3 goals.  The Lisbon lion was named the best Celtic captain ever in 2002 and was named in the best ever Celtic starting eleven.  He won 9 titles, 7 Scottish cups, 6 league cups as well as European cup In 1967.   He is the only Scottish football player to captain a Scottish side to European cup glory and I believe that will most likely remain the case for the years to come.

 

Captain Billy McNeil leads out the Lisbon Lions against Inter Milan in 1967

 

 

Is Andy the best this country has seen?

I personally think people ask this question because of the media coverage.  Murray is well known and a very successfully tennis player but there many other sporting athletes in the past that could compete with him.  I do believe he is the best Scottish athlete in the last 15 years however; several athletes in 20^th century like Kenny Dalgish, Billy McNeill, the rest of the Lisbon lions, Bob McGregor and Eric Liddell can also match his achievements although not perhaps his huge profile.

 

 

by Innes O'Donnell