Paul Lambert

Paul Lambert - Quick Facts

Profile Overview of Paul Lambert

Paul Lambert (born 7 August 1969) is a Scottish professional football manager and former player.

This profile of Paul Lambert covers St Mirren, Motherwell, Borussia Dortmund, Celtic and International Career.

Lambert played as a midfielder and won the Scottish Cup in 1987 with St Mirren as a 17-year-old, the UEFA Champions League with Borussia Dortmund and all the Scottish domestic honours with Celtic. In his international career, Lambert earned 40 caps for Scotland and played in the 1998 FIFA World Cup.

Lambert had success managing Wycombe Wanderers. After a short spell managing Colchester United, he guided Norwich City into the English Premier League with successive promotions in 2009–10 and 2010–11. After keeping Norwich in the Premier League in 2011–12, he managed Aston Villa for three seasons. Lambert was appointed Blackburn Rovers manager in November 2015, before leaving the club in May 2016. Lambert became head coach of Wolverhampton Wanderers in November 2016 but was dismissed at the end of the season.

Lambert was appointed manager of Stoke City in January 2018, but he was unable to prevent relegation to the Championship and left the club soon afterwards. Six years after leaving Norwich, Lambert became manager of fellow East Anglia club Ipswich Town in October 2018. He was unable to prevent Ipswich's relegation to League One, and left the club in February 2021 after failing to mount a promotion challenge.

St Mirren of Paul Lambert

Lambert was born in Glasgow, but moved to Linwood, Renfrewshire when he was a child. He played for Linwood Rangers Boys' Club before entering the professional game with St Mirren in 1985. With St Mirren, the 17-year-old Lambert won his first senior winner's medal courtesy of the 1987 Scottish Cup Final; Saints beat favourites and that season's UEFA Cup Finalists Dundee United, in what turned out to be the last time the Scottish Cup was won by a team composed entirely of Scottish players. Due to his age, manager Alex Smith had to send the youngster home early from the alcohol-fuelled celebrations. Lambert played with St Mirren for eight years, experiencing relegation from the top tier in 1992.

Motherwell of Paul Lambert

In September 1993, Lambert was signed by Tommy McLean for Motherwell for a fee of £250,000 in a transfer move that saw Jimmy Gardner move to St Mirren. The club finished in 3rd place at the end of the 1993–94 season in the Scottish Premier League.

With Alex McLeish replacing McLean for the 1994–95 season, Lambert and Motherwell went one place better finishing league runners-up, the club's highest finish since 1933–34. The club also qualified for a place in the 1994–95 UEFA Cup. After eliminating Faroese opponents, HB Tórshavn, Motherwell were drawn against German Bundesliga team Borussia Dortmund, managed by Ottmar Hitzfeld. In the away first leg, Motherwell lost to a solitary goal by Andreas Möller in the 58th minute. In the second leg, Motherwell were still in the contest, until Karl-Heinz Riedle scored twice in ten minutes during the second half.

Lambert won the club's Supporters Player of the Year, while he was also shortlisted for the SPFA Players' Players award in 1996. He left Motherwell at the end of the 1995–96 season under freedom of contract, as new rules were implemented following the Bosman ruling.

Borussia Dortmund

After leaving Motherwell, an agent arranged trial spells for Lambert with PSV Eindhoven and Borussia Dortmund. PSV did not sign Lambert as they were looking for a winger, but he signed for Dortmund after a pre-season tournament. Dortmund manager Ottmar Hitzfeld had previously been impressed by Lambert when the club had played Motherwell in the 1994–95 UEFA Cup. Portuguese international Paulo Sousa had also signed for Dortmund that summer. Sousa had been expected to play in Lambert's position, but Lambert performed well in early Bundesliga matches and kept a place in the team.

Dortmund had been the German champions in the previous two seasons, but struggled to keep pace with Bayern Munich in 1996–97, eventually finishing third in the Bundesliga. In the 1996–97 UEFA Champions League, though, Dortmund progressed through the group stage as runners-up. They then beat Auxerre and Manchester United to reach the Champions League final, against Juventus. He had scored one goal during the group stage, the first in a 2–2 draw at Widzew Łódź. His performance in the semi-final elimination of Manchester United, when Dortmund were missing several key players due to injuries, was later praised in the autobiography of United midfielder Roy Keane.

Lambert played in the Champions League final as a defensive midfielder, quelling the influence of Juve's French playmaker Zinedine Zidane. Lambert's cross also set up Karl-Heinz Riedle's opening goal as Dortmund won 3–1. His contribution has since been lauded as a Man of the Match performance. He became the first British person to win the European Cup with a non-UK team, and the first British person to win the tournament since its reformation as the Champions League in 1992.

It was announced the Champions League group stage game on 5 November 1997 against Parma, his 23rd in European club competitions, would be Lambert's last before he returned to Scotland. His departure was prompted by his son suffering a febrile seizure after the Champions League final: having previously experienced this when living in Scotland, the family decided to return home to be closer to relatives. He was given a rousing send off by the Dortmund fans, and reciprocated with a banner he had prepared thanking the Dortmund fans for their support. Lambert scored one domestic league goal during his time with Dortmund, against Bayer Leverkusen.

Celtic

In November 1997, after just over a year playing in the Bundesliga, appearing in 44 matches, he was signed by Wim Jansen for Celtic for a fee in the region of £2 million. Lambert made his debut on 8 November 1997 when he came on as a substitute in a league match at Ibrox against Rangers. Three weeks later on 30 November 1997, Lambert picked up his first winner's medal as a Celtic player when he came on as a late substitute in Celtic's 3–0 win over Dundee United in the Scottish League Cup Final. Thereafter, Lambert became a regular in the starting line-up and scored from 25 yards in a 2–0 win over Rangers at Parkhead in the New Year game. Lambert went on to help the Scottish giants win the championship that season, their first in ten years, halting Rangers' run of nine consecutive titles which had previously equalled the total achieved by Celtic in the Jock Stein era.

During his seven seasons with Celtic, he won four Scottish Premier League titles, two Scottish Cups, two Scottish League Cups and was Scottish Football Writer's Player of the Year and was shortlisted SPFA Player of the Year again in 2002 Lambert captained the team that reached the 2003 UEFA Cup Final in Seville; his team were drawing 2–2 after 90 minutes but after having a man sent off in extra time, conceded a third and decisive goal to José Mourinho's Porto.

Source: adapted from Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Lambert), text available under CC BY-SA 4.0.