500 MILLION people tuned in to watch Scotland the last time opened their World Cup campaign.
That was because the men in dark blue kicked off proceedings at France ’98 with a glamour clash against Brazil.
All the focus was on O Fenomeno – Ronaldo – in the run-up to the game (and indeed the tournament) but the Selecao took the lead through an altogether more unlikely source that night in Cesar Sampaio.
It was a nightmare start for Craig Brown’s Scotland, behind after just five minutes.
But the Tartan Army would soon have something to celebrate against the odds when John Collins tucked a penalty beyond Claudio Taffarel in the 38th minute.
However it would all end in glorious failure (this match that is – the campaign as a whole turned into a disaster) when Tom Boyd put the ball in his own net with 16 minutes remaining.
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Several famous famous including Sir Sean Connery and Sir Jackie Stewart were cheering Scotland on from the stands that evening.
But can you remember who was on the pitch that night, and what has become of them since – now that Steve Clarke‘s squad stand on the brink of history against Denmark?
Goalkeeper: Jim Leighton
Leighton was the senior man in the Scotland ranks in France and would earn three of his 91 caps at the tournament – but not his last.
He made his last Scotland appearance a few months later in a European Championship qualifier against Estonia, having set the record for the oldest player to play for the country at 40 years and 78 days old (since broken by Davie Weir and Craig Gordon).
Leighton would retire from playing two years later after returning to his first club, Aberdeen, following a career in which he also represented Manchester United and Hibernian.
Since then he has been involved in coaching, principally as Aberdeen‘s goalkeeping coach.
He subsequently stepped back from football altogether and started a new career as a sales manager in Aberdeen, working for companies in the city‘s oil industry.
Defender: Colin Calderwood
Centre-back Calderwood spent all of his playing career in England with the likes of Tottenham Hotspur and Aston Villa and won 36 caps for the national team.
He ended his playing career after a short loan stint at Notts County whilst signed for rivals Nottingham Forest.
After moving into coaching with Spurs he was appointed manager of Northampton Town in 2003 but left in 2006 after guiding them to promotion from League Two, rejoining Forest as boss.
Calderwood joined Newcastle as a coach after being sacked by Forest in December before coming north of the border in 2010 to take over from John Hughes at Hibs.
He was sacked with a record of 12 wins in 49 games and after that he had spells as an assistant coach at Birmingham, Brighton and Aston Villa before returning to full-time management with Cambridge United in 2018.
Just over a year later he was dismissed and his next job was working under future Hearts boss Neil Critchley at Blackpool.
Spells as assistant coach at Northampton and Southampton followed and in January of this year he returned to Northampton as director of football.
Defender: Colin Hendry
Known affectionately as Braveheart, Hendry’s life since captaining Scotland at France ’98 has been filled with turmoil, tragedy and controversy.
A Premier League winner with Blackburn Rovers, Hendry joined Rangers after the World Cup but didn’t see eye-to-eye with Dick Advocaat and would be off to Coventry City in February 2000.
Hendry ended his playing career after a spell at Blackpool and later became manager of the club in 2004.
He was sacked just under 18 months later but would go on to work as an assistant coach to fellow Scot Steve Evans at Boston United before a stint as Clyde boss between 2007 and 2008, which was his last managerial role.
Hendry lost his wife Denise in July 2009, at the age of just 43, with her death caused by complications from an operation that was needed after she went cosmetic surgery in 2002.
The former defender was declared bankrupt in 2010 owing £2.2million, with one of the creditors being SpreadEx, a betting company.
Another court appearance followed in 2012 after his friend Hector McFarlane assaulted him over an unpaid loan.
Then in On April 2015, Hendry was banned from driving for 17 months after being tested and found to be almost twice over the legal limit.
He has also faced raps of harassment on an ex-girlfriend.
Defender: Tom Boyd
He’ll forever be unfortunately known as the man that scored the own goal that gave Brazil all three points.
But in truth it doesn’t take away from a playing career that saw Boyd establish himself has a legend at two clubs in Motherwell and Celtic.
He won 72 caps for his country with several of them coming after the World Cup.
Boyd also continued playing at a high level for Celtic until 2003, playing under current interim boss Martin O’Neill.
Since retiring he has remained involved with the Hoops and was officially named as a club ambassador in 2016, with his duties including appearances at formal events and charitable occasions.
He has also worked as a co-commentator on the club’s TV channel, Celtic TV.
Midfielder: Christian Dailly
Dailly played a number of positions during his career, starting out as a striker before working back to defence.
The Derby County man was deployed as a wing-back in Brown’s 3-5-2 and the season after the World Cup he was signed by Blackburn Rovers for £5.3m where he would play for the next three years.
Dailly then became a bit of a cult hero at West Ham before coming back to Scotland as a free agent signed by Walter Smith at Rangers (with a brief loan stint at Southampton in between).
He retired from playing due to injury as he approached his forties, following spells at Charlton, Portsmouth and Southend.
Despite earning 67 caps for his country, is his most notable moment when he was infamously overheard calling the Germans “f****** diving cheats” after a match in 2003?
Nowadays, Dailly runs Big BASE Theory. After completing a sport and exercise degree at Manchester Metropolitan University, he founded the health and fitness company alongside former middle-distance and cross country runner Emma Prideaux.
Midfielder: Craig Burley
After Collins’ penalty, Burley would go on to score Scotland’s only other goal at France ’98 to salvage a draw against Norway (but he’d be sent off in the final group match against Morocco).
The midfielder was hard to miss on the pitch, not just for his industry and box-to-box nature but also the fact he was missing his two front teeth.
That was caused by a bizarre training accident whilst at Chelsea in which he kneed and headed the ball at the same time, forcing his front teeth into his jawbone and knocking them out completely.
Burley was a Celtic player during the World Cup and would later play for Derby, Dundee, Preston and Walsall.
He earned 46 caps for his country and after some slight remodelling work, has forged a career as a pundit in the USA following his retirement from playing.
He has worked most notably for ESPN but has also appeared with a mic in his hand for the BBC and BT Sport (now TNT Sports), but lives in Connecticut in the States permanently.
Midfielder: John Collins
The goalscorer that night in Paris, Collins was a difference maker on the park for Scotland under Brown and won 53 caps in total.
He had been plying his trade in Ligue 1 at the time for Monaco but moved to Everton after the World Cup and retired in 2003 after three years at Fulham.
Collins stepped into management with Hibs in October 2006 and won the League Cup for the Hibees in March 2007 with a 5-1 victory over Kilmarnock.
But he had a major fall-out with his players just weeks later, only for captain Rob Jones to issue a public apology after backing down.
Nine months later he quit amid a feud with the Leith club’s board and was next seen as popping up in Belgium as manager of Charleroi in a year’s time.
He would however only remain in charge for 18 games, winning seven and losing seven, the rest ending in draws.
After three years doing various punditry gigs, Collins was appointed director of football at Livingston in February 2012, where he stayed for a year until a disagreement with the board.
Collins then became an assistant coach at Celtic under Ronny Deila, and this was his last high profile coaching role, having returned to the odd punditry duty since.
Midfielder: Paul Lambert
Lambert was one of the most well-rounded players in the Scotland team, in terms of technical ability, tactical brain and physicality.
A year on from marshalling Zinedine Zidane out of the Champions League final for Borussia Dortmund, Lambert was in a Scotland team tasked with marking the likes of Rivaldo out of the game.
After eight years at Celtic, Lambert moved to Livingston as player-manager in 2005 and has since had several dugout roles in the last 20 years.
He moved down south to boss Wycombe and Colchester before his first big role with Norwich City came in 2009.
Lambert took Norwich from League One to the Premier League and was was even inducted into the club’s hall of fame in 2012.
He tried to resign after keeping them in the top flight that year but it was declined.
Following the departure of Alex McLeish from Aston Villa, Lambert was chosen as the man to replace his compatriot that summer in what would become a tumultuous tenure at Villa Park.
He had a fractured relationship with owner Randy Lerner and revealed he was eventually DELIGHTED to get the sack.
Stints in the dugout at Blackburn, Wolves, Stoke and Ipswich followed but since 2021 Lambert has taken a back seat from coaching and leads an altogether more quiet life.
Midfielder: Darren Jackson
Jackson was deployed in midfield by Brown despite usually playing as a striker throughout his career.
Indeed, he’d been a favourite of Brown for a long time – ever since the then-Scotland Under-21s manager defied the SFA to call up Jackson despite him being at a second tier club in Meadowbank Thistle.
By the time it came to France ’98, Jackson had starred for Newcastle, Dundee United, Hibs and Celtic.
His career would end after stints with St Johnstone and Clydebank (loan) and he became a reputable agent upon retiring, representing Jackie McNamara, Mark Wilson and Steven Thompson among others.
His association with Dundee United would be rekindled when McNamara brought him on board as a coach in 2013.
When McNamara was dismissed in September 2015, Jackson left with him and within a few months he was declared bankrupt with debts of £270,000.
He briefly served as assistant to Gary Locke at Raith Rovers in 2017 and then had six moths as a coach at St Mirren in 2018, where he had linked up with former team mate Alan Stubbs.
Most recently, Jackson worked as scout for Blackpool between 2019 and 2023. He had a similar role at Blackburn Rovers and also kept involved in agency, with clients such as Gary Mackay-Steven and Leigh Griffiths coming to the fore.
Forward: Kevin Gallacher
Like Hendry, Gallacher was a Premier League winner with Blackburn Rovers and a key man for Scotland going into France ’98.
He’d been on fire during the qualifiers, scoring six goals in the calendar year of 1997.
Those six goals made up nine of his Scotland total but he didn’t add any during the World Cup.
He left Blackburn for Newcastle during the 1999-2000 season and retired three years later and since then he has worked as a pundit, commentator and analyst for several broadcasters.
Gallacher would appear on BBC Radio Lancashire commentating Rovers games and on Radio 5 Live covering national games, and also worked for Sky, Setanta, Channel Five and BBC Scotland.
He also had a column in the Lancashire Telegraph and published a book on Scottish football in 2006 before dropping the pen to pick up the mic again, working on FA Cup games for ITV.
Forward: Gordon Durie
A hero with Rangers fans due to the part he played in the nine-in-a-row era, Jukebox Durie also turned out for East Fife, Hibs Chelsea and Spurs before ending his career with a short spell at Hearts.
His last Scotland cap came in the 3-0 defeat to Morocco that to this day is the last time Scotland played in a World Cup match.
Durie was another who did his coaching badges after retiring and was given his first managerial role by the same club where he made his breakthrough, East Fife.
After seven months in the role he resigned due to ill health but a year later he returned to coaching, this time at Rangers under Ally McCoist.
He worked with the youth and reserve teams at Ibrox before stepping up to the first team in 2014 when McCoist departed.
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Upon the arrival of Mark Warburton in the summer of 2015 Durie left the club altogether, and football.
He is now business development manager at Karen Durie Travel, a travel agency run by his wife Karen.
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