Kenneth McLean (born 8 January 1992) is a Scottish professional footballer who plays as a central midfielder or left midfielder for EFL Championship club Norwich City and the Scotland national team.
After being released by Rangers' youth team, McLean started his senior career at SPL club St Mirren. He went on loan to Second Division side Arbroath for the second half of the 2009–10 season, before returning to St Mirren and breaking into the first team. He moved to Aberdeen in 2015. In January 2018, he joined Norwich City but was loaned back to Aberdeen until the end of the season.
He represented Scotland at the under-19 and under-21 international levels before making his debut for the senior Scotland team in 2016.
McLean earned his first call-up for Scotland under-19 squad in October 2010, coming on as a 58th-minute substitute in a 4–2 win over Norway.
In March 2011, he was called up to the under-21 team. Making his debut, again from the bench, as Scotland beat Belgium 1–0. He was not selected for the Scotland under-21 team to play in a 2013 European Under-21 Football Championship qualification match against the Netherlands on 14 November 2011. St Mirren manager Danny Lennon expressed his surprise at McLean being left out of the squad. The Herald said that this was understandable given that he was "among the on-form midfielders of his age group" at the time.
McLean received his first call-up to the senior Scotland squad in March 2016, for a friendly against Czech Republic. McLean made his international debut in that game, playing 57 minutes. He was called up again in October 2017, for a friendly match against the Netherlands.
He scored his first Scotland goal in March 2019 in a 2–0 away win against San Marino.
McLean scored the winning penalties as Scotland beat Israel and Serbia in shootouts to secure qualification for UEFA Euro 2020 via playoffs. McLean missed the tournament itself due to a knee ligament injury suffered in the last game of the 2020–21 EFL Championship season.
Season Stats
16 appearances in the current 2024-2025 Season
English Championship 2020-2021 Norwich | English Championship 2018-2019 Norwich |
2009-2015 |
2015-2018 |
2018-2021 |
2023-2026 |
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