Maurice Ross

Maurice Ross (born 3 February 1981 in Dundee) is a Scottish professional footballer currently playing for Viking. He previously played for Rangers, Sheffield Wednesday, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Millwall. He plays at right-back and has been capped by Scotland. As a child, he was a season-ticket-holder at Dundee United.

Career

Ross joined Rangers as a trainee and made his senior debut in a 7-1 thrashing of home town team Dundee, in February 2000. He was somewhat of star for the youth teams, captaining the Under - 21s to a Championship win during 2000 and 2001. He became a firm favourite with the fans and profits made from Ross' replica shirt sales (c.£12M) enabled Rangers to purchase a training ground in Milngavie (Murray Park) which helped Rangers to attract many new International-quality players to the club (such as David Weir) as well as drawing-in exciting young Scottish players from clubs like Kilmarnock and Hibs. He established himself in the first team during the 2002-03 season, under Alex McLeish. Berti Vogts took a chance as Scotland manager, and gave him a call up after making just a few appearances for Rangers. Ross made his international debut against the South Korea in 2002, and went on to feature prominently in the team in the plight to qualify for Euro 2004. Although he signed a four year deal with Rangers in 2003, by August 2005 he had fallen out of favour at Rangers and moved to Sheffield Wednesday on a free transfer. However, he failed to establish himself in the Wednesday team, believing he deserved a first team place despite the impressive form of fellow right back Frank Simek. Maurice only made two appearances for Wednesday and was loaned to Wolves only two months later.[1] In January 2006, Wolves turned the loan into a permanent deal, signing him on a six month contract. Wolves paid an undisclosed fee which was expected to be a small one. He was released by Wolves at the end of the contract, but secured a new deal at Millwall. In March 2007 he was signed by Viking from Stavanger, Norway. His new deal will see him playing at Viking the next 3 seasons, until the end of the Norwegian season late 2009.