Daz McGregor , Leith Athletic Ambassador
Post from Leith Athletic .
As part of our 25 year celebrations, Leith Athletic Football Club are delighted and proud to announce that Darren McGregor has agreed to accept the role as our first ever Club Ambassador. At the start of the year, there were a couple of initiatives I wanted to take forward to mark our 25th anniversary. One of those, was to appoint an ambassador that could act as a role model to every player within the club, whether a five year old starting out or an East of Scotland first team player. In discussing the options with the clubs committee, there was only one name that epitomises everything that this community club is about.
Darren was one of the club’s “originals”, joining as an 11 year old in 1996, captaining the team to their first trophy in 1998. Leith Athletic was his only club at Youth level before he began a tremendous career in the professional game, signing for Cowdenbeath in 2004. During his two seasons, he played 35 times and helped the Blue Brazil win the Scottish League Division 3 championship. He then switched to the Juniors where he played for Aniston Rangers for two years before re-signing for Cowdenbeath in 2008. Another two season stay at Central Park saw him play 64 games (8 goals) and promotion to Division 1. His next move saw former Cowdenbeath manager Danny Lennon take him to St Mirren where he played 92 games (5 goals) in his 4 years in Paisley. During this spell Darren overcome adversity after suffering two cruciate ligament injuries in 2011 and 2012. In 2014/15, Darren joined Rangers playing 53 games (5 goals) and was awarded the Ibrox club’s Player of the Year and Manager’s Player of the Year. Despite these awards, Darren was surprisingly released by Rangers and was snapped up by Hibernian Football Club. To date, Darren has played 165 games (8 goals) for Hibs and was part of the team that ended the 114 year wait to win the Scottish Cup. Ironically, the open top bus parade finishing the journey looking over Leith Links where his footballing career had begun.
Gerry Freedman, the club’s founder and Honorary Life Chairman, commented “Daz was a joy to coach all the way through his time with the club. He never gave less than 100% in every game, a big Leither he was the perfect example of a player playing for the jersey. He was and still is a lovely boy. His career since he left Leith Athletic is ‘Roy of the Rovers’ stuff and to overcome serious injury, not once but twice, to then go on and win the Scottish Cup with Hibs is truly inspiring, ‘Persevere’ could be his middle name. Daz is the perfect choice as the club’s first ever Ambassador and he has been a big part of our proud 25 year history. I have no doubt that Daz will embrace the role and help take the club forward to even greater things”.
Commenting on the appointment Darren said: “I am honoured to be asked to be the club’s Ambassador. I spent all my Youth football years at Leith Athletic, from 11 years old until I signed for Cowdenbeath at 19, learning from some great coaches. The community feeling of the club then was very important and it is still the same today. I look forward to helping the club in any way I can in the future”.
