Thomas Valley "Tosh" McKinlay (born 3 December 1964 in Glasgow

Glasgow

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...

) is a Scottish

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 former international footballer

Football (soccer)

Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...

. A fullback or wingback, he spent most of his career in Scotland.

Career

Tosh was an outstanding schoolboy footballer winning trophies with St Peter's Boys Primary in Partick and St Thomas Aquinas, Jordanhill, Glasgow. As a schoolboy, Tosh played left wing and was a regular goalscorer with a deadly left foot shot. He only moved to fullback when he turned professional and surprisingly never scored many goals as a professional. He represented Scotland at schoolboy level.

Before turning professional, Tosh was an ardent Celtic fan going regularly to Celtic matches with his father on the supporters buses that left Partick from the Dolphin Pub and Smiddy Bars in Partick.

McKinlay began his professional career with Dundee

Dundee F.C.

Dundee Football Club, founded in 1893, are a football club based in the city of Dundee, Scotland. They are nicknamed The Dee or The Dark Blues and play their home matches at Dens Park. Their shirt colour is dark blue. Dundee currently play in the Scottish First Division, having been relegated from...

, whom he joined from Celtic Boys Club

Celtic Boys Club

-External links:*...

 in 1981. He became a first-team regular while still a teenager and spent over 7 years at Dens Park

Dens Park

Dens Park is a football stadium located on Dens Road in Dundee, Scotland. The stadium is the home of Dundee F.C. and has a capacity of 12,085...

 before being sold to Heart of Midlothian

Heart of Midlothian F.C.

Heart of Midlothian Football Club are a Scottish professional football club based in Gorgie, in the west of Edinburgh. They currently play in the Scottish Premier League and are one of the two principal clubs in the city, the other being Hibernian...

 for £300,000 in December 1988. He stayed with the Tynecastle

Tynecastle Stadium

Tynecastle Stadium is a football stadium situated in the Gorgie area of Edinburgh, Scotland, which is the home ground of Scottish Premier League club Hearts. Tynecastle has a seating capacity of 17,420, which makes it the seventh largest football stadium in Scotland...

 club until 1994, when the death of his infant son led him to seek a change.

In November 1994 he joined his boyhood team Celtic

Celtic F.C.

Celtic Football Club is a Scottish football club based in the Parkhead area of Glasgow, which currently plays in the Scottish Premier League. The club was established in 1887, and played its first game in 1888. Celtic have won the Scottish League Championship on 42 occasions, most recently in the...

 in a £350,000 transfer and just over 6 months later gained his first winners medal as the Glasgow side defeated Airdrie

Airdrieonians F.C.

Airdrieonians Football Club, more commonly known as Airdrie, were a Scottish professional football team from the town of Airdrie, in the Monklands area of Lanarkshire....

 to win the 1994-95

1994-95 in Scottish football

The 1994–95 season was the 98th season of competitive football in Scotland. This season seen the re-introduction of the Scottish 3rd division, after an absence of 26 years, and also the introduction of three points for a win being awarded instead of just two.-Notable events:*Raith Rovers...

 Scottish Cup

Scottish Cup

The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,, commonly known as the Scottish Cup or the William Hill Scottish Cup for sponsorship purposes, is the main national cup competition in Scottish football. It is a knockout cup competition run by and named after the Scottish Football Association.The...

. He won his first full Scotland

Scotland national football team

The Scotland national football team represents Scotland in international football and is controlled by the Scottish Football Association. Scotland are the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside England, whom they played in the world's first international football match in 1872...

 cap aged 30 in 1995 against Greece

Greece national football team

The Greece national football team represents Greece in association football and is controlled by the Hellenic Football Federation, the governing body for football in Greece. Greece's home ground is Karaiskakis Stadium in Piraeus and their head coach is Fernando Santos...

 and went on to earn selection for both the 1996 European Championships

1996 UEFA European Football Championship

The 1996 UEFA European Football Championship was hosted by England, who won the right to host the tournament ahead of bids from Austria, Portugal and the Netherlands. It was the tenth European Football Championship, which is held every four years and endorsed by UEFA. It was the first to use the...

 and the 1998 World Cup where he played in the opening game against World Champions Brazil in front of an estimated 1.7 Billion worldwide TV audience. He was a regular player for Celtic until he was displaced by Stéphane Mahé

Stéphane Mahé

Stéphane Mahé is a retired Breton and French professional footballer and former manager of Saint Nazaire FC .-Club career:...

 in the 1997-98 season

1997-98 in Scottish football

The 1997–98 season was the 101st season of competitive football in Scotland. Celtic halted Rangers in their bid for a record 10-in-a-row.-Scottish Premier Division:-Top scorers:-Table:-Top scorers:-Table:-Top scorers:-Table:...

, during which time he went on loan to Stoke City

Stoke City F.C.

Stoke City Football Club is an English professional football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire that plays in the Premier League. Founded in 1863, it is the oldest club in the Premier League, and considered to be the second oldest professional football club in the world, after Notts...

.

After leaving Celtic permanently in 1999, McKinlay spent a year in Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

 with Grasshopper-Club Zürich

Grasshopper-Club Zürich

Grasshopper Club Zürich commonly referred to as simply GC, GCZ, or Grasshopper is a Swiss multisports club based in Zürich. The oldest and best known section of Grasshopper Club Zürich is its football team...

 before returning to Scotland to finish his career with a short spell at Kilmarnock

Kilmarnock F.C.

Kilmarnock Football Club is a Scottish football team based in the town of Kilmarnock, Ayrshire. Founded in 1869, "Killie" is the oldest club currently in the Scottish Premier League. Home matches are played at Rugby Park...

. On retiring he took up a post as an internet sports journalist with a Norwegian

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 media company. He now works as an agent

Sports agent

A sports agent procures and negotiates employment and endorsement contracts for an athlete.In return, the sports agent generally receives between 4 and 10% of the athlete's playing contract, and 10 to 20% of the athlete's endorsement contract, though these figures vary...

 for Celtic Media.

External links