Kenny Dalglish main page
Celtic Players and the Scotland Team
Kenny Dalglish is the most capped Scotland player ever, having represented his country 102 times. However only 42 of these were while he was Celtic, as in 1977 he was transferred to Liverpool for a record £440,000 fee. Dalglish scored 30 goals for Scotland, making him the joint record-holder along with Dennis Law.
Dalglish was given his Scotland debut by by Tommy Docherty in 1971, as a substitute in a 1-0 European Cup qualifier against Belgium at Pittodrie. His first goal came a year later, in a 2-0 victory over Denmark at Hampden. He participatd in the 1974 World Cup finals, where Scotland were eliminated after the group stages, despite not having lost a match.
In 1976, Dalglish scored the winning goal against England in a 2-1 victory at Hampden, kicking the ball through the keepers’ legs, and again a year later in another 2-1 victory against the Auld Enemy, this time at Wembley. Famously after the victory, the Tartan Army invaded the pitch and tore down the goalposts!
He also played in the 1978 World Cup finals, scoring a memorably goal in a 3-2 defeat of the Netherlands, and in the 1982 World Cup, where he scored against New Zealand.
Yet despite these record-breaking statsitics, by his own admission, King Kenny never played at his best for the national team. Given that he was arguably the most gifted Scottish football player of all time, his international performances were often considered substandard and off-colour. Some thought he didn’t try hard enough. Some thought he didn’t find playing for Scotland exciting, after his glittering successes at Celtic and Liverpool (his period at Liverpool coincided with one of the most successful periods for a British club, ever). Some blamed the poor form of the rest of the Scotland team. But for whatever reason, Dalgish tends to be remembered as primarily a club player, having never shone for his country in the quite the same way. This may be true, but on the other hand the record number of caps and goals speak for themselves.
Major Tournaments:
1974 World Cup, West Germany
1978 World Cup, Argentina
1982 World Cup, Spain
Note:
In his autobiography, Dalglish speculated that Ormond – who reinstated him for the next Home Internationals against Northern Ireland and England, two games he just happened to score in – had been pressurised from within the SFA not to allow a Celtic player to claim a Rangers legend’s Scottish record. Dalglish thereafter started 34 straight internationals to claim the record as a Liverpool player, but that dubious omission against Wales denied him Billy Wright’s all-time record for consecutive such appearances, the England man having turned out for his country 70 times on the spin.
Andrew Smith The Scotsman (Nov 2020)