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Craig William Levein (born 22 October 1964) is a Scottish professional football manager and former player who was most recently the manager of Scottish Premiership club St Johnstone.
During his playing career he played for Cowdenbeath and Heart of Midlothian, making over 300 league appearances for Hearts until he was forced to retire due to injury. He also won 16 caps for Scotland and was part of their 1990 FIFA World Cup squad.
After retiring as a player Levein became a manager, working at club level for Cowdenbeath, Heart of Midlothian, Leicester City, Raith Rovers and Dundee United. Levein was appointed Scotland manager in 2009, but he left this position after the team failed to win any of its first four matches in 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification. He returned to Hearts in 2014 as director of football, then served as their manager from August 2017 to October 2019. After a spell advising Brechin City, Levein was appointed St Johnstone manager in November 2023, before being relieved of his duties in September 2024.
1986 brought further woe for the young Levein when he picked up a serious knee injury in a reserve team game against Hibernian. The injury was to change his life. He had a recurrence of the injury in 1988 when he collapsed unchallenged in a game against Rangers and spent a second year out of the game.
It was not just injuries that kept Levein from playing during his time at Hearts: he was given a 12-game ban after punching, and breaking the nose of, Hearts teammate Graeme Hogg during a pre-season friendly against Raith Rovers.
Levein was forced to retire from playing in 1997, due to another serious knee injury. He made 401 appearances for Hearts.
During his tenure, United regularly finished in the top half of the Scottish Premier League. The club reached the 2008 Scottish League Cup Final, which United led twice before losing to Rangers on a penalty shootout. Levein signed a new contract with United in December 2008, but he left the job in December 2009 to become Scotland national football team manager. United went on to win the 2009–10 Scottish Cup under his successor Peter Houston, who had been Levein's assistant. Levein overhauled the club's youth system, which subsequently brought through players such as Ryan Gauld and John Souttar.
Levein dropped in-form striker Kenny Miller and played an ultra-defensive 4–6–0 against Czech Republic in their third game. The match ended in a 1–0 defeat, with Levein attracting criticism for his negative tactics. Levein later said that he had adopted the formation after seeing Russian club Rubin Kazan achieve a good result against FC Barcelona with that approach. He also conceded that he perhaps should not have done this without knowing the players well, early in his tenure as manager.
In the following game, against World and European champions Spain, Levein adopted a more conventional 4–5–1 formation with Miller in attack. Scotland lost 2–3 despite coming back from 0–2 down to draw level at 2–2. Scotland then beat Faroe Islands 3–0 in a friendly where Levein gave seven debuts due to 9 withdrawals from the initial squad. Scotland won the first two matches of the 2011 Nations Cup with ease, beating Northern Ireland 3–0 and Wales 3–1. The Scots lost 1–0 to the Republic of Ireland in their third game, meaning that the Republic won the tournament.
In order to reach the UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying play-offs, Scotland realistically needed to beat the Czech Republic in their next qualifier. The match ended in a 2–2 draw, after two late controversial penalty kick decisions by Dutch referee Kevin Blom both went against Scotland. 1–0 wins in the next two qualifiers against Lithuania and Liechtenstein kept their chances mathematically alive, but a 3–1 defeat by Spain coupled with the Czech Republic winning in Lithuania eliminated Scotland.
For the 2014 FIFA World Cup, Scotland were drawn into UEFA qualifying Group A with Belgium, Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia and Wales. Preparations started with a 1–1 draw in Slovenia, but the team suffered a 5–1 defeat by the United States in May. Scotland bounced back with a 3–1 friendly win against Australia in August. Levein attracted criticism for selecting Ian Black for that match, despite him playing in the fourth-tier Scottish Third Division. Levein had previously said that it would be "very difficult" for any player to go from playing in the Third Division to an international match, and had left out Lee Wallace for that reason. Black received a mixed reception when he appeared as a late substitute, with some sections of the crowd booing him.
Levein stated his belief that Scotland were capable of winning all of their qualifying games, but the first two matches ended in home draws against Serbia and Macedonia. Levein was again criticised for adopting negative tactics. Levein then recalled Steven Fletcher and Kris Commons, but Scotland fell to two away defeats against Wales and Belgium, which left the Scots bottom of Group A with only 2 points from 4 games. He was relieved of his duties on 5 November 2012, following talks with the Scottish Football Association.
Levein was sacked as Hearts manager and director of football on 31 October 2019, although he was retained in an advisory role until May 2020.
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| + Managerial record by team and tenure | ||
| Cowdenbeath | November 1997 | 1 December 2000 |
| Heart of Midlothian | 1 December 2000 | 29 October 2004 |
| Leicester City | 29 October 2004 | 25 January 2006 |
| Raith Rovers | 5 September 2006 | 30 October 2006 |
| Dundee United | 30 October 2006 | 23 December 2009 |
| Scotland | 23 December 2009 | 5 November 2012 |
| Heart of Midlothian | 28 August 2017 | 31 October 2019 |
| St Johnstone | 5 November 2023 | 17 September 2024 |
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