Kenny Miller

Kenny Miller (born 23 December 1979) is a Scottish football player. He plays for the Scottish Premiership club Rangers and was a regular starter for the Scotland national team until his retirement from international football in 2013. He is a centre forward. He is one of only five players to ever play for both Rangers and Celtic, and one of only two to ever cross the divide twice.

Club career

Hibernian
Kenny started his career at Hibernian, and made his debut in the 1997/98 season. He was loaned to Stenhousemuir where he scored 10 goals in 11 games. He spent four years at the club, and was the Scottish Premier League top scorer in season 1999/00 and received the Scottish Young Player of the Year award in 2000.

Rangers
Kenny signed for Rangers for £2 million in June 2000. He made his debut in a 4-1 win against FBK Kaunas on 26 July during a Champions League match. His first goal came on 5 August 2000 during an SPL match away to Kilmarnock, scoring the third in a 4-2 win.

Three months later, Miller netted five goals (a Scottish Premier League record) during a 7-1 home defeat of St. Mirren. More goals against Monaco and Aberdeen meant he had ten goals from just fourteen games. However, until the end of the season, Miller only scored once more, against Brechin City in the Scottish Cup.

In September 2001, he went to Wolverhampton Wanderers (Wolves) on a three-month loan, scoring two goals in his first two games. However, during his third match, Miller broke his shoulder in a fall. During the next two months, Wolves and Rangers had talks over his future. Wolves finally bought him on a permanent deal at a cost of £3 million. Miller had made a total of 38 appearances and scored 11 goals for Rangers.

Wolverhampton Wanderers
In 2002/03 Miller was playing most games for Wolves, but he had only managed six goals in 19 games. However, during the final six months of the season he scored 18 goals in his final 24 appearances. He equalled a club record of scoring in six consecutive games. That helped Wolves gain promotion into the English Premier League.

In the summer of the 2005/06 season, the newly promoted Premiership team Sunderland wanted to sign Miller, but Wolves rejected their £1m and £1.2m offers and Miller began the new season as a Wolves player. Miller scored 12 goals, and ended the season as top scorer - the third time in Wolves last three seasons. Miller played more than 190 games for Wolves and scored more than 60 goals during his five years with the club.

Celtic
When Miller's contract finished at the end of that season, he transferred to Celtic for free under special rules, called the Bosman ruling. He signed an  agreement in January after refusing to sign a new deal at Wolves a month earlier. Miller became only the third player since the war to have played for both sides of the Old Firm - following Alfie Conn and Maurice Johnston.

Despite being praised by many for his overall performances, Miller failed to score in his first nine games for Celtic. He finally scored his first goal, against Old Firm rivals and former employers Rangers at Celtic Park in September 2006. He then went on to score in Celtic's 1–0 Champions League win against Copenhagen from the penalty spot and scored two in the 3–0 win over Benfica. By scoring in the 2006/07 Champions League season, Miller became the first player to score goals in the Champions League for both Rangers and Celtic. However, he ended the season with only four league goals. He did play in the 2007 Scottish Cup final, before being substituted because of an injury. Despite hints from the player himself that he would leave to get more first-team opportunities, Miller vowed to stay at the club and fight for his place at the club. Miller scored his first goal in his first appearance of the 2007/08 season in a 4–1 victory over Falkirk and added to his collection the following week by scoring against Aberdeen. He scored 11 goals in total for the club in 46 appearances.

Derby County
Miller signed a three year deal with newly promoted English Premier League club Derby County on 31 August 2007 for an undisclosed fee, thought to be around £3 million, but later confirmed by Derby County manager Paul Jewell to be closer to £2.25m.

Miller started well at his new club, scoring in his first two home matches, including the winner on his league debut for the Rams against Newcastle United in a 1–0 win on 17 September 2007, a strike which won the club's Goal Of The Season award. However, following this initial success Miller netted just twice in his next 28 league fixtures.

With Derby looking like they would be relegated Miller said he would like to move just over 6 months after joining the club - with a return to Rangers his preferred destination, though his manager Jewell insisted any move would have to be financially fair for Derby.

Return to Rangers
A fee of £2m was agreed between Rangers and Derby allowing Miller to move back to Ibrox. The deal was completed on 13 June. Miller's return to Ibrox means he is one of only a few players to cross the Old Firm divide twice.

Miller made his second debut for the club on 30 July 2008 in a UEFA Champions League qualifier gainst FBK Kaunas. He scored in the first Old Firm game of the season on 31 August 2008. He followed this up with a further two goals against former employers Hibernian at Easter Road on 28 September 2008, then adding his sixth goal back in a Rangers shirt at Rugby Park in a 4-0 win over Kilmarnock.

International career
Since making his Scotland national team debut in 2001, Miller has remained a player in the Scotland team under the management of Berti Vogts, Walter Smith and Alex McLeish.

He has scored goals in crucial games against several teams, including Germany and Ukraine. In 2005, Miller scored in three consecutive internationals, with goals against Austria, Italy and Norway.

Club career statistics

|-
|1997/98||rowspan="2"|Hibernian||Premier Division||7||0||0||0||0||0||colspan="2"|-||7||0
|-
|1998/99||First Division||7||1||0||0||1||0||colspan="2"|-||8||1
|-
|1998/99||Stenhousemuir||Third Division||11||8||2||2||0||0||colspan="2"|-||13||10
|-
|1999/00||Hibernian||Premier League||30||10||5||1||2||1||colspan="2"|-||37||12
|-
|2000/01||rowspan="2"|Rangers||rowspan="2"|Premier League||27||8||3||1||1||1||4||1||35||11
|-
|2001/02||3||0||0||0||0||0||colspan="2"|-||3||0

|-
|2001/02||rowspan="5"|Wolverhampton Wanderers||rowspan="2"|First Division||20||2||1||0||0||0||colspan="2"|-||21||2
|-
|2002/03||46||20||4||3||2||1||colspan="2"|-||52||24
|-
|2003/04||Premier League||25||2||3||2||2||1||colspan="2"|-||30||5
|-
|2004/05||rowspan="2"|League Championship||44||19||2||0||1||1||colspan="2"|-||47||20
|-
|2005/06||35||10||2||0||2||2||colspan="2"|-||39||12

|-
|2006/07||rowspan="2"|Celtic||rowspan="2"|Premier League||31||4||4||1||1||0||8||3||44||8
|-
|2007/08||2||3||0||0||0||0||0||0||2||3

|-
|2007/08||Derby County||Premier League||30||4||3||2||0||0||colspan="2"|-||33||6

|-
|2008/09||rowspan="2"|Rangers||rowspan="2"|Premier League||30||10||5||3||1||0||2||0||38||13
|-
|2009/10||||||||||||||||||||
148||44||19||8||6||2||14||4||187||58
200||67||15||7||7||5||colspan="2"|-||222||79
348||111||34||15||13||7||14||4||409||137
|}

International career statistics

|-
|2001||1||0
|-
|2002||0||0
|-
|2003||7||2
|-
|2004||9||0
|-
|2005||8||4
|-
|2006||4||3
|-
|2007||6||1
|-
|2008||5||1
|-
|2009||6||0
|-
|2010||||
|-
!Total||46||11
|}

References

1979 births
Living people
Scottish footballers
Scottish football managers
Sportspeople from Edinburgh