Andrew Driver

Andrew David Driver (born 20 November 1987) is a professional footballer who plays for Scottish Premier League team Hearts as a left winger. He has represented Scotland at schoolboy level and England, where he was born, for the under-21 side.

Club career

Hearts

Driver was born in Saddleworth, Oldham, Greater Manchester, but moved to Gullane, East Lothian at the age of eleven.^[1] He began playing for Hutchison Vale AFC^[2] in Edinburgh, from where he joined the Hearts youth academy.

He first made his mark on Hearts' first team during a pre-season tour of Austria in 2006, where he started all three friendlies, creating four goals in the process with his direct play and crossing ability. In August 2006 Driver signed a five-year extension to his contract with Hearts, committing him to the club until 2011. He made his home debut in the league on 26 August 2006 against Inverness Caledonian Thistle, coming on as a substitute with 15 minutes to go and scoring four minutes later.^[3] Driver also scored a free kick in a 3–1 victory over Celtic at Celtic Park on 29 April 2007.^[4] In July 2008 Driver signed an amended contract with the club for another five years committing himself to the club until 2013.^[5]

Driver was the subject of two bids totalling £500,000 from Championship club Burnley in the summer of 2008, which was rejected by Hearts.^[6] Coventry City too made a £1 million bid in the 2009 January transfer window, which was also rejected. On 6 July, the BBC reported that Burnley had opened signing talks with Hearts.^[7] Joop Munsterman the FC Twente CEO reported on RVT Oost that Hearts had turned down a £3m offer for Driver.^[8] In all five clubs enquired about his availability including Chelsea.^[9]

Since the Summer of 2010 Driver's appearances were limited due to injury.^[10] A bad knee injury needed surgery^[11] and was followed by a thigh injury suffered during a bounce match to regain fitness.^[12] In May 2011 he had to undergo a further knee operation.^[13]

In his first appearance on his return from Injury Driver made his European debut against Paks in the Europa League scoring the third goal in their 4-1 win.^[14] Despite being fit^[15] Driver only appeared in seven of the first 20 competitive appearances under new manager Paulo Sérgio and a loan deal was considered,^[16] but did not come to fruition as Hearts were seeking a fee for the loan.^[17]

On 16 December the press reported that Driver was due to hand in a transfer request^[18] as he no longer wished to play under new manager Paulo Sérgio.^[19] The following day he was included in the squad as a substitute to face Dunfermline but was dropped after confirming to Sergio that he did not wish to play under him.^[20] Despite this Driver was a 62nd minute substitute against Motherwell the following weekend replacing David Templeton.^[21]

International career

Driver was previously a Scotland schoolboy international,^[22] scoring a goal in a 2–1 Victory Shield defeat by England on 22 November 2002.

England U21 manager Stuart Pearce called the uncapped Driver up for the 2009 European Championships. He made his debut and only appearance at the tournament in the 1–1 draw against Germany on 22 June 2009 during the group stages.

He was thought to be eligible to play for the Scotland senior team because of the new residency ruling recently introduced.^[23][24] He was not called up by then-manager George Burley as Burley stated that it was Driver's choice to officially make himself available for selection.^[25] On 4 February 2010, Driver committed his international future to Scotland after face-to-face talks with Scotland manager Craig Levein.^[26] Only one week after opting to represent Scotland, the Scottish FA informed Driver he was not eligible to play for the national team, as he had not been schooled in Scotland for the requisite period of time.^[27] This rule was subsequently altered to allow Driver to play for Scotland,^[28] although he is yet to do so.

Career Statistics

As of 15 March 2012^[29][30]

Personal awards and achievements

• Scottish Premier League Young Player of the Month: September 2007^[31]

References

External links

• Andrew Driver career stats at Soccerbase
• Transfermarkt Profile
• Andrew Driver profile at the Hearts website

v t e England squad – 2009 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship 1 Hart 2 Cranie 3 Taylor 4 Cattermole 5 Stearman 6 Onuoha 7 Milner 8 Gardner 9 Agbonlahor 10 Noble 11 Johnson 12 Muamba 13 Lewis 14 Walcott 15 Rodwell 16 Tomkins 17 Richards 18 Mancienne 19 Gibbs 20 Driver 21 Campbell 22 Loach 23 Rose Coach: Pearce