James Leighton (born 24 July 1958) is a Scottish former professionalfootballer who played as agoalkeeper. Leighton started his career withAberdeen, where he won seven domestic trophies and the1982–83 European Cup Winners' Cup under the management ofAlex Ferguson. Ferguson then signed Leighton forManchester United in 1988, but dropped him after he conceded three goals in the1990 FA Cup Final. Leighton then had spells withArsenal,Reading,Dundee andSheffield United, and rebuilt his career after joiningHibernian in 1993. He returned to Aberdeen in 1997, leading to a career total of over 600 appearances in the league alone.

Jim Leighton

Leighton in 2009
Personal information
Full name	James Leighton[1]
Date of birth	(1958-07-24)24 July 1958 (age 66)[1]
Place of birth	Johnstone,[1] Scotland
Height	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)[2]
Position(s)	Goalkeeper
Youth career
	Eastercraigs Boys Club[3]
	Dalry Thistle
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1977–1988	Aberdeen	301	(0)
1977–1978	→Deveronvale (loan)
1988–1992	Manchester United	73	(0)
1991	→Arsenal (loan)	0	(0)
1991–1992	→Reading (loan)	8	(0)
1992–1993	Dundee	21	(0)
1993	→Sheffield United (loan)	0	(0)
1993–1997	Hibernian	151	(0)
1997–2000	Aberdeen	82	(0)
Total		636	(0)
International career
1982	Scotland U21[4]	2	(0)
1982–1998	Scotland	91	(0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Leighton played in 91 international matches forScotland. He was chosen for Scotland'sFIFA World Cup squads in1982,1986,1990 and1998, playing in the latter three of those tournaments.

Leighton joined Aberdeen from ScottishJunior club Dalry Thistle in 1977,^[5] after working in thecivil service on leaving school.^[3] Before breaking into the Aberdeen first team he was loaned out for one season toHighland League clubDeveronvale, where he is now an inductee of the club's Hall of Fame.^[5] Leighton achieved his greatest success under the management ofAlex Ferguson in the early to mid-1980s. With Leighton in goal, Ferguson's Aberdeen wonPremier Division titles in1984 and1985,^[6] theScottish Cup four times, theScottish League Cup once, and theEuropean Cup Winners' Cup andSuper Cup in 1983.^[7][8]

Brian Clough, a notorious critic of other goalkeepers for the national team during the 1970s and 1980s, has been reported as saying "Jim Leighton is a rare bird – a Scottish goalkeeper that can be relied on."^[9]

Ferguson, who had left Aberdeen to manageManchester United in 1986, signed Leighton for £750,000 in 1988. In his first season with United, the club finished 11th. Leighton conceded 35 league goals and kept 14 clean sheets, while he conceded more than two goals only once in all competitions.

In1989–90 United finished two places lower in the league in 13th. Leighton played when United were defeated 5–1 in the league by newly promoted neighboursManchester City, and conceded three goals in1990 FA Cup Final, a 3–3 draw withCrystal Palace. He was then dropped from the United starting lineup for the replay, in whichLes Sealey made a number of saves as United won the match 1–0.^[3] Leighton's disappointment was such that when handed the winner's medal by Sealey, he later returned it to his replacement's pocket, and when a medal specifically for Leighton was received by the club due to his appearance in the first match, he declined that too.^[3] The two players remained close friends, although Leighton's relationship with Ferguson deteriorated to the point where the two were no longer on speaking terms.^[10]

Sealey retained the position of first-choice goalkeeper for the1990–91 season after signing a permanent contract. Although Leighton remained contracted to United for nearly two more years, he played only one more game for the club (againstHalifax Town in theFootball League Cup on 26 September 1990). He was fourth choice keeper in 1990–91 behind Sealey,Gary Walsh and youngsterMark Bosnich, and was loaned toArsenal between March and May 1991, a period in which they won theleague title, although he did not play.^[3]

Leighton remained fourth choice United keeper in season 1991–92 behindPeter Schmeichel, Walsh and youngsterIan Wilkinson. He spent a portion of that season on loan with third-tierReading.

In March 1992Iain Munro signed him forDundee for a £200,000 fee.^[11] He played in the last dozen league games of the season winning the title in the Scottish second tier and promotion to the top flight. He was out of favour atDens Park afterSimon Stainrod replaced Munro as manager. Leighton had another non-playing loan spell atSheffield United.^[3]

His career was revitalised afterAlex Miller signed him forHibernian in summer 1993,^[3] Leighton playing over 150 games and missing only one league match in four seasons. He played in the1993 Scottish League Cup Final defeat to Rangers.^[12] He was recalled to the Scotland national team, collecting 23 of his 91 Scotland caps at Hibs. He later said he played the best football of his career in his spell atEaster Road and rated Miller the second-best manager he played under.^[3]

In 1997 Leighton returned to Aberdeen, where he featured regularly for another three seasons and reached 500 appearances for the club in 1998.^[5] He was captain in the2000 Scottish League Cup final defeat toCeltic.^[13]

He retired from playing after the2000 Scottish Cup final defeat by Rangers. In that game he was substituted after three minutes, suffering a broken jaw in a challenge fromRod Wallace (requiring the insertion of metal plates into his face).^[3] With no substitute goalkeeper available, forwardRobbie Winters took over in goal and Aberdeen lost 4–0.^[3][14] Leighton's final league appearance that season meant that he set the record for the oldest player in theScottish Premier League at 41 years and 302 days (since broken byAndy Millen in 2007).^[15]

In July 2000 he was given atestimonial againstMiddlesbrough,^[16] the same opponent as in his first appearance for Aberdeen in a 1978 friendly;^[17] however he could not actually play in the match due to recovering from his cup final injury.^[3] He released hisautobiography the same year. In 2004 he was inducted into the club's Hall of Fame.^[5]

Leighton's international career lasted for 16 years, from 1982 to 1998. He was an uncapped squad member for the1982 World Cup,^[7] before making his debut againstEast Germany on 13 October 1982. Within two years he was his country's No. 1, and he played in all of his country's matches at the1986^[7] and1990 World Cups.

After Leighton fell out of favour at club level,Andy Goram became Scotland first choice goalkeeper and played atEuro 92 andEuro 96.^[3] Leighton regained the position after a man of the match performance in a 1-0 home win versusSweden in November 1996^[3][18] duringqualification for the1998 World Cup. Leighton played all three Scotland matches at the tournament finals and became the last football player born in the 1950s to play in a FIFA World Cup game.

He retired from international football on 10 October 1998. His last match was a European Championship qualifier againstEstonia when aged 40 years and 78 days. This set a new record as the oldest player to play for Scotland, since broken byDavid Weir in September 2010^[19] and later byCraig Gordon in June 2024.^[20] Leighton is a member of theScotland Football Hall of Fame, having won his 50thcap in 1989.^[7] Leighton played 91 times for Scotland, second only toKenny Dalglish's 102 appearances.

Leighton became Aberdeen's goalkeeping coach after retiring as a player. He parted company with the club in August 2009 when managerMark McGhee (his former teammate, who had also brought him to Reading years earlier) chose to replace him withColin Meldrum.^{[3][9][21][8]} In February 2010 he was appointed as goalkeeping coach forHuntly in theHighland League.^[22] Leighton was reappointed as the goalkeeping coach at Aberdeen on 13 December 2010, the first act of the new management team ofCraig Brown andArchie Knox;^[3][23][8] he left the club again at the request of managerDerek McInnes, at the end of the 2014–15 season.^[24][8] He commented soon afterwards that he would look for work outside football, as he was unwilling to relocate fromAberdeen due to other work and family commitments,^[8][25] and subsequently became a sales manager for companies providing services tothe city's offshore industry.^[26]

Deveronvale

• Bells Cup East:1977–78^[31]

Aberdeen 'A'

• SFL Reserve Cup:1978–79^[32]
• Aberdeenshire Cup:1980–81,1982–83^[33]

Aberdeen

• Scottish Premier Division:1983–84,1984–85
• Scottish Cup:1981–82,1982–83,1983–84,1985–86
• Scottish League Cup:1985–86
• Drybrough Cup: 1980–81^[34]
• European Cup Winners' Cup:1982–83
• European Super Cup:1983

Manchester United

• FA Cup:1989–90
• FA Charity Shield:1990 (shared)

Dundee

• Scottish Football League First Division (second tier):1991–92

Scotland

• TheRous Cup:1985^[35]

Individual

• Scotland national football team roll of honour: 1989
• Scottish Football Hall of Fame inductee: 2008^[36]
• Aberdeen FC Hall of Fame inductee: 2004^[37]
• Deveronvale FC Hall of Fame Inductee: 2019

• List of footballers in Scotland by number of league appearances (500+)
• List of Scotland national football team captains

• Jim Leighton at Soccerbase 
• Jim Leighton at theScottish Football Association 
• London Hearts profile
• Club profile at sportingheroes.net
• International profile at sportingheroes.net
• Profile and stats atAFC Heritage Trust
• Jim Leighton at goalkeepersaredifferent.com