Steven MacLean (born 23 August 1982) is a Scottish professional football coach and former player who was most recently the manager of Scottish Premiership club St Johnstone.
MacLean played as a forward for Rangers, Scunthorpe United, Sheffield Wednesday, Cardiff City, Plymouth Argyle, Aberdeen, Oxford United, Yeovil Town, Cheltenham Town, St Johnstone, Heart of Midlothian and Raith Rovers. He also represented the Scotland national under-21 football team.
He retired from playing in 2020 and became a coach with St Johnstone. He was their manager for six months during 2023.
Club career
Early career
MacLean began his senior football career at Rangers, followed by a loan spell at Third Division outfit Scunthorpe United, scoring 25 goals. Despite this, Rangers manager Alex McLeish deemed that he was not "a first team prospect" and placed him on the transfer list.
Sheffield Wednesday
On 7 July 2004, MacLean joined Football League One club Sheffield Wednesday for an undisclosed fee, believed to be around £125,000, and signed a three-year deal.
He scored 20 goals in his first season, including a hat-trick against fellow South Yorkshire side Doncaster Rovers, Wednesday's first away hat-trick for 32 years. He was the first Sheffield Wednesday player to hit the 20 goal mark in one season since Mark Bright in 1994. He also scored a crucial penalty under pressure in the play-off final to level the scores at 2–2. Wednesday went on to defeat their opponents Hartlepool United 4–2 after extra time.
MacLean sustained a broken leg on the eve of the club's Championship campaign in August 2005, but returned in the latter part of the season to score two penalties for Wednesday, first at home to rival club Sheffield United in a 2–1 defeat and then against league champions Reading, which earned the Owls a 1–1 draw.
MacLean sustained another injury setback in August 2006 after scoring in a 1–1 draw against Burnley, but made a comeback a month later in the defeat to Derby County. He finished the 2006–07 season with 13 goals from 22 first team starts and 22 substitute appearances, making him the club's joint top goal scorer for the season with Deon Burton and showing signs of returning to the form in which he played with in the 2004–05 season.
Cardiff City
On 22 June 2007, it was announced that MacLean had signed for Sheffield Wednesday's Championship rivals Cardiff City, after failing to agree a new contract at Hillsborough. The move was a surprise to many Owls fans as MacLean was rumoured to have declared his willingness and desire to remain at the club. Speculation arose during the prolonged contract-talks with Wednesday that MacLean was demanding a significant pay-rise from that of his previous contract. It is possible that another stumbling block which prevented Sheffield Wednesday renewing MacLean's contract, was a clause in his contract which would grant former club Rangers £50,000 if he re-signed.
MacLean began the season as Cardiff's leading striker after Robbie Fowler was deemed not fit enough to play in some of the team's opening games. Famous for having never missed a penalty in his career, he came to Cardiff to miss one on his debut, leaving his new club to lose 1–0 to Stoke City in the first game of the season. He scored his first goal for the Bluebirds in the next game away to Queens Park Rangers, as Cardiff won 2–0. However, with Fowler soon returning and the arrival of Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, MacLean found himself relegated to the bench. Things continued to get worse for him as he suffered ruptured ankle ligaments in a reserve match against Plymouth Argyle, which was expected to rule him out until December. However, he made an early return coming on as a substitute in a 1–0 loss to Southampton on 21 October 2007. After his return, he made mostly late substitute appearances, with just three starts for Cardiff – in a 2–0 defeat against Charlton Athletic, a 2–2 draw with Watford, and a 3–1 win against Chasetown in the FA Cup.