Exclusive:The search for Alex Harris, Hibs and Scotland's forgotten starlet - 'I'm happy how it's worked out'
Once a wispish winger, 32-year-old is now in financial services and an occasional centre-half
The recent announcement that Martin Boyle had been awarded a testimonial from Hibernian prompted two reactions. The first was gladness that a terrific career had been recognised so appropriately. And the second response? Well, I can’t be alone in wondering whatever happened to Alex Harris?
For those who are already a bit lost, let me explain. Boyle’s Hibs association is forever wrapped up with Harris, who was the other winger involved in a straight loan swap in January 2015.
Boyle, a buzzy but bit-part performer for Dundee, headed to Hibs. The Dens Park side were only too happy to receive Harris in return. Injury problems aside, he was clearly bursting with potential.
Boyle went on to have a so-so initial spell at Easter Road, missing out on the chance to help them prevail in the play-offs due to injury (Hibs were beaten by Rangers). Meanwhile Harris, who did not finish on the losing side in his first eight appearances for Dundee, enjoyed his step back up to the top flight from Championship-stranded Hibs.
“Friends always remind me, or if someone says something about it, it will be sent to me,” he says, when asked about a swap deal which seemed eventually to work out so much better for Hibs. “I will say: ‘All right, but I got top six with Dundee!’”
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“It wasn’t until he (Boyle) signed permanently that he showed how good he was,” he continues, which is true. “Under (Neil) Lennon in the Championship he was brilliant. And now he’s Hibs captain. I had a good six months at Dundee, I enjoyed it.”
Harris returned to Easter Road but played just seven more matches, six of them alongside Boyle in a brief period when their worlds collided. Their contrasting fortunes since switching places is another illustration of the role fate plays in footballers' journeys. "It might have been different (for me)," ponders Harris, who suspects he was too often pressed into playing when not 100 per cent fit early in his career. "But you don't live with regrets. I am happy the way it's worked out, worklife-wise and family."
Harris, now 32, is sitting in a café in the southside of Edinburgh. He has become accustomed to the Boyle-linked teasing. He also accepts the inevitability that when swap deals are discussed, this one gets ranked up there alongside the most baffling.
It might seem baffling with the unfair perspective granted by the passage of time. Boyle has gone on to excel, adding poise to his pace and scoring over 100 goals for the Easter Road club while also starring for Australia. He has established himself as a modern-day Hibs great and richly deserves a glamour match to honour his contribution.
Now working for Aegon although currently on secondment, Harris is now more likely to be given a gold watch for services to the financial services industry. It might surprise some to learn that he has now spent as long as six years at Berwick Rangers, currently of the Lowland League (East). Another four seasons and he might be marching out between two applauding teams at his own testimonial.
He laughs at this possibility, which seems a long way off right now. Currently injured, he will be watching this weekend’s Scottish Cup first round tie at Cowdenbeath—arguably the most attractive and intriguing fixture in Scotland this weekend—from the sidelines.
Two proud old clubs fighting to reach an accommodation with their current reality pitched together in a competition that’s offered them both great days in the past. What’s not to like?
Harris suffering from injury
Harris will be among the crowd in Fife. It is a now sadly familiar scenario for the veteran, who injured an ankle in the closing moments against Musselburgh Athletic two weeks ago. Perhaps mercifully, it meant missing last weekend’s 7-1 Challenge Cup drubbing by Airdrie. Berwick have changed managers in the interim, with former Hibs midfielder Martin Scott taking over from the sacked Kevin Haynes.
Harris embraced the different rhythms of part-time football long ago, after joining Edinburgh City from York City in 2019. He and his wife Anna, a nurse, are parents to Sammy, who will be two in December. It’s fair to say life is full on.
Unusual for having entered professional football from the fee-paying Edinburgh Academy, Harris is now just one among hundreds playing away in the very much non-elite world of lower-tier Scottish football while holding down full-time jobs. They are the real heroes of the game.
“It's not like England, where you've got probably six tiers of full-time,” he says. “In Scotland, you’ve got teams in the Championship who are part-time. The opportunity is not there so much. I always thought about life after football.
“I knew I was going to have to work after I retired (from football). I wanted to make a jump start. I joined Aegon. A family friend was in there. Because I had not done anything financial before, I was quite happy to start low down and work my way up, as I have done over the last six years. I was in a back-office role, administration.
“Not to be disrespectful, but quite a low-grade job. I joined Edinburgh City. I adjusted to that 9-5 routine and then training twice a week. When you are full-time, you are in at 9, finished at one and then into the gym or you go for a coffee with a teammate or teammates. You take it for granted really.”
He reels off the names of players you might recognise who have taken similar journeys. Great pal Danny Handling, also once of Hibs, is now with him at Berwick, as is former Easter Road youth goalkeeper Calum Antell. Even at Aegon there are fellow ex-pros, including Kevin Watt, another ex-Hibs youth.
He’s in with the bricks now, but Harris must have raised eyebrows when he walked into the staff canteen initially, among Hibs – and Hearts – fans especially.
“One of my old managers, he's not on my team now, but he's always winding me up,” he says. “If we get a beating at the weekend, he's always the first person I see! ‘What happened?!’ It's nice people are taking an interest, I suppose.”
Those who have taken the time to update themselves with Harris’ progress might not recognise him at first. Once a will-o-the-wispish winger, he has broadened out. The number on his shirt is No.6, which doesn’t necessarily mean much these days. However, he confirms that he does indeed play in the centre of the pitch. “In the style of a No. 6 or No. 8," he says. "In truth, maybe between that."
Those Hibs fans who attended the B side’s Challenge Cup fixture v Berwick Rangers last month might have taken time to place the midfield anchorman at the heart of the Borderers’ 1-0 win.
It proved a surreal evening for Harris, who, alongside the likes of Sam Stanton and Ross Caldwell, was once viewed as the future at Hibs. Former teammate Darren McGregor is now in charge of the Development Squad. Harris was even reunited with Academy head Guillaume Beuzelin, who is the reason Harris has been known as “Boozy” throughout his playing career (on account of having the same dark frizzy hair). Perhaps most startlingly of all, he found himself up against Jackson Thomson, son of his former Hibs – and Dundee – teammate Kevin.
“It was a bit weird, yes,” he says. “It was interesting playing against 16 and 17-year-olds, thinking ‘that was me 15 years ago’. It made me want to win even more!” He is also still getting used to playing alongside Josh O'Connor, son of Garry and yet another one-time Hibs starlet. Harris recalls Garry bringing a seven-year-old Josh along to training at Hibs. "A bit like me, Josh has gone part-time and maybe lost his way a wee bit but if he wants to succeed and work hard he can definitely get back" he says.
Age and injury have inevitably impacted Harris' speed, which was once a major weapon. Harris spent 15 months on the sidelines after rupturing his Achilles tendon during a friendly in July 2024.
“To be honest, even before the injury I was already doing that,” he says, with reference to the retreat backwards positional-wise. “I'd already started that change before my injury. I was getting older, I didn’t have the pace that I had when I was 16 or 17. So I had started that transition before. And obviously I probably can't move as much as I could when I was younger, which I'm trying to adapt to.
A career first
“I had hamstring injuries, and hamstring injuries were the ones that probably set me back most in terms of pace and strength. I’ve had knee niggles. After I got my Achilles, I was told other muscles are probably going to fail a bit because my body's not used to it. Obviously, I'm in my 30s now as well, so I need to manage it.”
How much longer can his body cope? “I'm kind of taking it as it comes,” he says. “Because I feel... I've just had my first pre-season for a couple of years now. Last year I was playing catch up…” He has now been set back again after damaging ankle ligaments in the dying seconds of the 0-0 draw v Musselburgh. After Berwick were reduced to ten men just four minutes in, Harris was redeployed.
“I was actually playing centre-half for the first time in my career pretty much!” he recalls. “Not bad for five feet nothing! We kept it at 0-0 and then in the last 30 seconds I landed awkwardly as I was trying to kick the ball with my right foot and landed on my left and felt a big pain. It swelled up really quickly.”
The discomfort took the shine off a clean sheet in his first match in the middle of defence. “We could have nicked the win, actually,” Harris – who is actually 5ft 10in - says.
The latest injury is an undoubted blow, particularly since it means missing out on a glamour tie amid the discarded stock-car tyres at Central Park. The Berwick website refers to the Cowdenbeath clash 80 miles away as a derby. “There’s always a bit of needle involved, fans as well as players,” says Harris. North Macedonia v Scotland can’t hold a candle to it.
Younger than Andy Robertson by five months, Harris also has 99 fewer Scotland caps. There was once a time when they appeared to be cresting the wave together. Indeed, when Harris was enjoying his breakthrough moment at Hampden Park, resolving to help rescue Hibs against Falkirk in a Scottish Cup semi-final aged just 18, the slightly older Robertson was lagging a bit behind.
On the same afternoon Harris scored to set Hibs on their way to a comeback win against Falkirk having trailed 3-0 at half-time, Robertson was playing against Berwick Rangers, coincidentally, in a 4-1 defeat for Queen’s Park (Lawrence Shankland was an unused sub for the Glasgow visitors).
Robertson joined Dundee United that summer. Harris, meanwhile, broke his ankle in the first league match of the following season against Motherwell and by the time he was back playing again, Pat Fenlon had been sacked and Terry Butcher was manager. Catastrophic relegation put the tin lid on a season that can be identified as a defining one in Harris’ career.
A 3-1 home defeat against Dundee United at Easter Road was one of 17 reversals suffered during that league campaign. Harris was up against Robertson. “I can remember him running up and down all day, a powerhouse on that left flank,” he says. “Dundee United had a really good team. I remember playing against him when he was at Celtic and they had a really good youth team.
"I saw he was on the Stick To Football podcast recently, so I made sure to watch that. He comes across really well. I don’t know him personally, really. But 100 caps for your country, that’s incredible isn’t it?”
Harris hasn’t performed on an international stage since representing the Scotland Under-20s in a tournament in Poland. However, he hasn’t given up on winning a full cap. Harris attracted some unexpected publicity while at Falkirk when it emerged that he was being tracked by Grenada of all countries.
Harris’ grandfather on his mother Diane’s side hailed from the Caribbean island. “We had Myles Hippolyte, who I think was half-Grenadian,” he recalls. “I think he had been contacted by them before. I mentioned I was from Grenada as well. They (Grenada) got in touch with both of us.
“But their games were not in the international breaks so I would have had to miss games from Falkirk. I spoke to the club, their response was: ‘well, if you have to miss games…’
“To be honest, I was like, ‘I will probably get another chance to do it’. Whereas now I wish I had just taken the opportunity then. If they contact me now, I’d love to play for them….!” If the Spice Boyz, as Grenada are known, need a centre-half, they know where to come.
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