Steve Clarke is the current manager of the Scotland national team and former player for Chelsea, St Mirren and Scotland.
Clarke won three major honours with Chelsea towards the end of his career before various coaching roles with Newcastle, Chelsea, West Ham and Liverpool.
His first permanent managerial job came with West Brom and he went on to manage Reading and Kilmarnock before his current role with Scotland.
As a player he won the FA Cup, League Cup and UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup with Chelsea, whilst winning the Premier League twice and both cups as a coach with the Blues.
As a manager, he took Kilmarnock back into Europe for the first time since 2001 and their highest league place since 1996.
He won a clutch of Scottish manager of the year awards before becoming the Scotland head coach and taking them to consecutive European Championships and the brink of qualification for the 2022 World Cup.
Clarke began his professional career with St Mirren in 1982 after he was noticed by scouts whilst playing for Beith Juniors.
He was initially on a part-time contract with St Mirren, while he completed an apprenticeship as an instrument engineer.
He made his debut at the age of 19 and quickly established himself as a first-team regular, earning himself a better wage with a full-time contract.
Playing mainly as a right-back, he could also perform at centre-back and went on to play more than 200 first-team games at the Buddies between 1982 and 1987.
In five seasons, Clarke helped establish St Mirren as a top Scottish Premier Division side with three top five finishes.
St Mirren went on to win the Scottish Cup just three months after Clarke signed for English side Chelsea for a club record selling fee of £422,000 in February 1987.
Clarke stayed with Chelsea until the end of his career in 1998 making over 400 appearances for the club.
In that time he earned the first of his six appearances for the Scottish National side and three major honours with Chelsea, as well as being named the club's player of the year in 1994.
First, he won the FA Cup in 1997 after a 2-0 victory over Middlesborough when he played at centre-back.
The following year, the two sides met again but this time in the League Cup final, where Clarke came on as a substitute as Chelsea were victorious for the second time by a score of 2-0.
That same year, Clarke became European champion when his side won the UEFA Winners’ Cup, equivalent of today’s Europa League.
Clarke played the full game in Stockholm at centre-back as a Gianfranco Zola goal was enough to see Chelsea beat Stuttgart 1-0.
This was his final appearance for the club and for his playing career.
After retiring from playing, Clarke joined his former manager Rudd Gullit as assistant manager at Newcastle United in 1998.
Clarke was part of the coaching team which helped Newcastle reach the 1999 FA Cup Final, where they finished runners up to Manchester United.
Following Gullit's resignation in August 1999, he became Newcastle caretaker manager for one match, a 5–1 defeat against Manchester United.
He eventually left Newcastle and returned to Chelsea to manage the youth teams, before being promoted to first-team assistant manager when Jose Mourinho was appointed the manager in 2004.
With ‘The Special One’, he won two Premier League titles, an FA Cup and two League Cups over three seasons under Mourinho.
This included the historic 2004/05 season where Chelsea won their first league title in 50 years and they set a number of Premier League records including - most clean sheets kept in a season (25), most wins in a season (29) and fewest goals conceded in a season (15).
Clarke completed his UEFA Pro Licence in 2006 before Mourinho left in 2007, he remained at the club until 2008 when he looked to pursue other opportunities.
On 12 September 2008, Clarke handed in his resignation to Chelsea, and after a the resolution of a compensation dispute became West Ham United's assistant manager under his former Chelsea teammate Gianfranco Zola.
West Ham finished ninth in the Premier League in the 2008/09 season, earning Clarke and Zola extended contracts. This made the Scot the highest paid assistant manager in the league.
However, the club struggled the season after narrowly avoiding relegation and not long after the dismissal of Zola as manager, Clarke left the club by mutual consent.
In 2011, Clarke was appointed first-team coach at Liverpool by Kenny Dalglish and he helped turn the club’s fortunes around that season.
However next season, Clarke offered his resignation following the sacking of manager Dalglish and Liverpool's eighth-place finish in the Premier League. The club declined the offer but following the appointment of new manager Brendan Rodgers, Clarke left the club, claiming he was sacked.
On June 8, 2012, Clarke was appointed manager of West Bromwich Albion and signed a two-year contract.
The job was Clarke's first permanent management role for any club and he began the Clarke era with a 3–0 home win against Liverpool on the opening day of the 2012/13 Premier League season.
That season he was named Premier League manager of the month for the first time in November and he handled the Peter Odemwingie saga when the Nigerian striker tried to leave the club in January.
He defeated Liverpool again towards the end of the season in which he set club records at the time for wins (14) and points (48) in a Premier League season.
West Brom ended the season in style with a dramatic 5–5 draw with Manchester United, in what was Sir Alex Ferguson's final match as manager.
The draw saw West Brom finish 8th in the table, their best finish since 1981.
In 2013, he secured them an historic 2–1 victory against league champions, Manchester United, for their first win at Old Trafford in 35 years.
West Brom were minutes away from securing a historic win at Stamford Bridge that would have ended Jose Mourinho's undefeated home record in 2013, but a controversial penalty decision ensured that the game ended 2–2.
After a run of defeats, the Baggies relieved him of his duties and placed him on gardening leave until the end of the 2013/14 season.
Clarke then joined Reading in December 2014 on a two-and-a-half-year deal, succeeding Nigel Adkins.
In March 2015, Clarke guided Reading to a 3–0 win over Bradford City in the FA Cup to reach their first semi-final for 88 years, which they lost to Arsenal.
During November of the following season Clarke was approached by Fulham to become their new manager, but turned the job offer down. A month later Reading sacked him.
He had a brief four month spell with Aston Villa as the assistant manager to former Chelsea teammate Roberto Di Matteo in 2016.
Then after a year out of football, in October 2017, Clarke was appointed manager of Scottish Premiership club Kilmarnock, the club he had supported as a child.
In his first two games with the bottom of the table Kilmarnock, he earned 1-1 draws against Scottish giants Rangers and reigning champions Celtic.
The Rangers match was his first in Scotland for over 30 years and following the league's winter break, Kilmarnock recorded a home victory over leaders Celtic and inflicted what was only the second domestic defeat for Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers.
Kilmarnock finished the season in fifth-place, setting a new club record points tally of 59 in the process, as a result Clarke was named the SFWA Manager of the Year for 2017/18.
He continued to impress and in the following season, he guided Kilmarnock to another victory over Celtic again and then beat Rangers twice in one season.
The club improved on last season’s fifth-place with a third-place finish and European qualification for Kilmarnock. Once again he scooped the SFWA Manager of the Year award and also collected the PFA and SPFL's versions of the same award too.
Clarke was hot property and at the end of the season he was offered the Scotland job.
Despite his impressive career in the English Premier League, Clarke only made six appearances for his home country and wasn't selected for any major tournaments.
He became manager of Scotland’s national team in May 2019 and was given a contract until the end of the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification campaign.
In his first game in charge, Scotland beat Cyprus 2-1 at home in a UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying match.
On 12 November 2020, Scotland defeated Serbia 4–5 on penalties after a 1–1 draw to take their place in the delayed Euro finals via the UEFA Nations League route, their first major tournament since 1998.
During the Euros, Scotland drew with England at Wembley after a defeat at Hampden Park to Czech Republic.
They lost their final game to Croatia, and finished bottom of Group D at the tournament. But it was a step in the right direction for a country that had been in the international tournament wilderness.
Later that year, Scotland won six consecutive games and finished second in Group F of 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification. But they just missed out on booking their place in the tournament after losing 3-1 to Ukraine in the play-off semi-finals.
Scotland won promotion to League A of the Nations League by winning their League B group in the 2022/23 competition.
Clarke was handed a new contract and then set about securing Scotland's qualification for the next major championship - Euro 2024.
Scotland won their first five matches against Cyprus (twice), Spain, Norway and Georgia. They lost just one group match, to Spain, and finished second in the group confirming their place at Europe's top table with two games to spare.
Clarke's brother Paul was a semi-professional footballer who played for Kilmarnock as a centre-back.
The two siblings played each other in the 1982/83 Scottish Premier Division season, Paul scored both goals for Kilmarnock in a 2-2 draw against Steve’s St Mirren side.
Steve is married to Karen Clarke and they have two sons, John and Joseph, and they also have grandchildren.
As of 2024, Clarke’s net worth is believed to be around £1million.
Scotland boss Steve Clarke was left frustrated after his charges were denied a penalty in the 1-0 Euro 2024 defeat to Hungary, which ended their tournament.
Scotland boss Steve Clarke hopes his charges have learned a few Euro 2024 lessons ahead of the all-important clash with Hungary in Group A on Sunday.
Steve Clarke’s Scotland must beat Switzerland in Cologne on Wednesday night (2000 BST) if they want their stay at Euro 2024 to go beyond the group stage.
Steve Clarke told a dejected Tartan Army to "keep the faith" after Scotland began their Euro 2024 campaign with a 5-1 thrashing by Germany.
Steve Clarke has shared his inspiring mantra of "respect everyone and fear no one" ahead of Scotland's European Championship opener against Germany.
Euro 2024 hosts Germany kick off the tournament against one of qualifying’s surprise packages, Scotland, at the Allianz Arena in Munich on Friday (2000 BST)
Scotland manager Steve Clarke described Andy Robertson as a 'proper leader' after the Liverpool defender etched his name into history by becoming the most-capped player as captain of the national team.
