Leeds United legend revealed as major shareholder at top-flight British club

Leeds United legend and First Division title-winner Gordon Strachan has emerged as a major shareholder at Scottish Premiership side Dundee.

Strachan has been Dundee’s technical director since July 2019, returning to the club with whom he began his playing career back in the 1970s. The 67-year-old took shares in the club in lieu of a salary earlier this year, with a Companies House filing stating more than 14 million shares were paid out to the director at a ‘nominal value’ of £0.01.

The total value of Strachan’s shares stands at £142,222, placing him as the Scottish Premiership club’s fourth-biggest shareholder. Tim Keyes and John Nelms, via their company Football Partners Scotland, are majority shareholders with manufacturer Smyth Composites third.

Dundee currently sit sixth in the Scottish Premiership, having been promoted from the Championship last season. They have been up and down between the two top Scottish divisions in recent years but could be set for a top-half finish for the first time since 2014/15.

Strachan is an icon at Dens Park, having signed for The Dee as a 14-year-old back in 1971. The Edinburgh-born midfielder went on to play 89 times for the first-team before moving on to Aberdeen in 1977, for a fee of just £50,000 plus Jim Shirra.

At Aberdeen, Strachan played under Sir Alex Ferguson and won the Scottish Premier Division, Scottish Cup, European Cup Winners’ Cup and European Super Cup before following the iconic manager to Manchester United. In an incredibly rare move at the time, he moved from Old Trafford to Elland Road when signing for Leeds in 1989, dropping down to the second division under Howard Wilkinson.

Strachan quickly became a huge favourite at Elland Road and captained Leeds to the Second Division title in 1990. Back in the top-flight, he formed arguably one of the greatest midfield units Leeds had ever seen alongside David Batty, Gary McAllister and Gary Speed. He continued to captain the Whites as they won the First Division Title in the 1991/92 campaign, going down in history as a legend at the club.

Strachan played 235 times for Leeds across all competitions before a brief spell at Coventry City, where he coached alongside playing before retiring and moving into a managerial role in 1996. The Scottish international would also manage Southampton, Celtic, Middlesbrough and the Scottish national team before taking on the technical director role with Dundee in 2019.