Paul Hartley

Football player infobox
playername = Paul Hartley


fullname = Paul James Hartley
height = height|ft=5|in=8
dateofbirth = birth date and age|1976|10|19
cityofbirth = Hamilton
countryofbirth = Scotland
currentclub = Celtic
clubnumber = 11
position = Midfielder
years = 1994–1996
1996–1997
1997–1998
1998–2000
1999–2000
2000–2003
2003–2007
2007–
clubs = Hamilton Academical
Millwall
Raith Rovers
Hibernian
→ Morton (loan)
St. Johnstone
Heart of Midlothian
Celtic
caps(goals) = 047 (11)
044 0(4)
050 (13)
036 0(6)
003 0(1)
087 (12)
118 (31)
042 0(1)
nationalyears = 1997
2005–
nationalteam = Scotland U-21s
Scotland
nationalcaps(goals) = 001 0(0)
021 0(1)
pcupdate = 22 September 2008
ntupdate = 22 September 2008

Paul James Hartley (born 19 October 1976, in Hamilton) is a Scottish professional footballer, currently playing for Celtic in the Scottish Premier League.

Club career

Early career

Hartley started his career at Hamilton Academical in 1994, where he spent two seasons. Millwall paid £400,000 to gain his services in 1996 and he spent one season there, concurrently playing for the Scotland U21 team. He returned to Scotland in 1997, when he joined Raith Rovers for £150,000, before joining Hibernian in 1998, whom he helped win the First Division in 1998-99.

In season 1999-2000 he spent a short spell on loan at Greenock Morton.

t. Johnstone

Soon after Hartley joined St. Johnstone, but was unable to stop them being relegated from the Premier League.

During his time at St. Johnstone, Billy Stark started using Hartley as a central attacking midfielder. Hartley had previously played mostly as a right winger. This change of position coincided with a significant upturn in Hartley's performances.

Hearts

Hearts manager Craig Levein had noticed this improvement and signed him on a free transfer when his contract in Perth expired in 2003. Revelling in his new role, Hartley continued to improve at Tynecastle, helping Hearts to third place in the Premier League in 2003-04 and starring in their subsequent UEFA Cup run.

In January 2005, Celtic attempted to buy Hartley. Their £300,000 offer was considered significantly below Hearts valuation and was rejected. Hartley subsequently signed an improved contract with Hearts.

One of Hartley's most memorable performances was his three goals against Hearts' arch rivals Hibernian in the Scottish Cup semi-final in 2006, his first hat-trick as a professional footballer. Despite his sending off in the final, Hearts defeated Second Division outfit Gretna on penalties.

During the January 2007 transfer window Hartley was linked with a move to Rangers [http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/sport1/hi/football/teams/r/rangers/6237901.stm Rangers poised for Hartley offer] — "BBC Sport" website, January 6 2007] and with a move to English Premiership side Aston Villa, now managed by Martin O'Neill, who was behind the unsuccessful Celtic bid in 2005. Hearts manager Valdas Ivanauskas responded to the speculation by insisting any transfer bids would not be appreciated.

On January 26, Hearts and Ivanauskas admitted that they had now come to the decision to sell their prize assets and both Hartley and Craig Gordon were both dropped for that weekend's match against Rangers. Hartley remains a legend in the eyes of all Hearts supporters.

Celtic

Hartley signed for Celtic for £1.1 million on a two-and-a-half-year contract, with the option for a further year.cite news
title = Celtic complete Hartley capture
url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/h/heart_of_midlothian/6312529.stm
publisher = BBC Sport
date = 2007-01-31
accessdate = 2007-04-28]

Despite having a mediocre start to his Celtic career in the second half of the 2006-07 season, Hartley has enjoyed a very good 2007-08 season having been a main feature in the team throughout the year and making a major impact in the Champions League. On August 15 2007, he scored his first goal for the Hoops in the first leg of their Champions League 3rd qualifying round tie against Russian side Spartak Moscow. He has been usually employed in a more defensive midfield role in which he has excelled at times. Hartley was one of Celtic's key players in the defence of their league title at the end of the 2007-08 season in which Celtic had to win all 7 of their remaining matches, two against arch-rivals Rangers. Playing in the centre of midfield with Barry Robson, Hartley displayed some tremendous performances in helping Celtic to their 3rd league title in a row, the first Celtic team to do so since Jock Stein was manager in the late 1960s.

International career

Hartley's performances for Hearts earned him international recognition in March 2005, when he won his first Scotland cap against Italy. He has to date earned a total of 19 caps, scoring his only international goal to date in a 3-0 win over Slovenia in October 2005. Throughout Scotland's Euro 2008 qualifying campaign, Hartley was a constant alongside boyhood friend Barry Ferguson, captain at Rangers FC on the right of midfield. He started both of Scotland's famous 1-0 victories over France, in Glasgow and Paris, and was heavily praised for his all-action performance in the holding midfield role in Paris. Hartley's performance helped disrupt nearly every France attack and made several key blocks, and led club manager Gordon Strachan to start using him in the same role at Celtic with similar successful results.

International goals

:"Scores and results list Scotland's goal tally first."

Honours

*Scottish Premier League: 2007, 2008
*Scottish Cup: 2006, 2007
*Scottish First Division: 1999

Charities

The Prince & Princess of Wales Hospice, located beside the River Clyde in Glasgow City Centre, provides specialist palliative care for people with life-limiting illnesses, usually cancer, and support for their families and carers.

Paul had kindly and out of the goodness of his own heart turned up to put a smile on the face of John Murray who is dying from Cancer and who is being brilliantly looked after by the nurses at The Prince & Princess of Wales Hospice. John Murray’s family would like to thank everybody who has been there to help in such a difficult time.

References

External links

*soccerbase|id=9833|name=Paul Hartley
*SFA Profile|id=17014|name=Paul Hartley
* [http://www.londonhearts.com/scores/players/hartleypaul.html Profile] at londonhearts.com