Graham Alexander

Graham Alexander (born 10 October 1971 in Coventry, West Midlands (county)) is a Scotland international Association football, currently playing for Burnley F.C. in the English Football League Championship. He normally plays as a defender (association football) but can play as a midfielder as he did early on in his career with Scunthorpe United F.C..

Club career

Alexander began his career in the late 1980s as a youth team with Scunthorpe United F.C. and in 1991 he signed his first professional contract, quickly becoming a member of the first team. Alexander made over 200 appearances at Scunthorpe before moving to Luton Town F.C. for a transfer fee of £100,000. He went on to make a similar number of appearances with Luton in his four years with the club.

In 1999 two clubs were vying for his signature; Burnley F.C. and Preston North End F.C.. Both clubs made offers for the player but Alexander opted for a move to Preston. He became a first team regular at Deepdale, eventually club captain and an established set-piece taker, particularly in penalty kick. In the 2000/2001 season Alexander missed several weeks of the season after breaking his ribs in an away match against Wolverhampton Wanderers. During his eight years at Preston, Alexander became the club's then-longest serving player, making 400 appearances with his 400th coming against Colchester United F.C. on August 25 2007. He was also in the PFA's Championship Team of the Season for 2004/05


On August 29 2007, he made a surprise move to local rivals Burnley almost 9 years after they had originally tried to sign him. The reasons cited for his departure were that Preston would not extend his contract by another year so when offered a two year contract by Burnley the player accepted and made a £200,000 move to Turf Moor. Preston Chairman Derek Shaw did not want to lose the player and said;


"We don't particularly want to sell Graham but he has the comfort of a two-year contract at Burnley whereas he only has one year here at Deepdale. We quite possibly would have renewed Graham's contract, he's a fit man." Alexander said that playing for Scotland was one of his main ambitions in football This ambition was fulfilled when he made his debut on April 17, 2002 in a 2–1 friendly defeat to Nigeria national football team at Pittodrie Stadium.