Zander Clark joins Hearts

10 February 2022

The hugely experienced goalkeeper, formerly of St Johnstone, joins the Jambos on a three-year-deal.
 
The 30-year-old is a well-known figure in Scottish football thanks to his regular heroics between the sticks for the Perth Saints.
 
He came through the youth system at McDiarmid Park and got his first taste of senior football with a loan spell at Elgin City in 2011.
 
Two season-long loans at Queen of the South followed, before Zander made his St Johnstone debut in 2015.
 
He never looked back, amassing a total of 211 appearances in blue, including European football, while his crowning moment came in 2020/21 when he helped St Johnstone to lift both the Scottish Cup and League Cup.
 
His form didn’t go unnoticed by the national team, with Steve Clarke calling him up for Scotland squads last year.
 
The big goalkeeper will now take the next step in his career at Tynecastle Park, and manager Robbie Neilson told the Official Hearts Website; “We’ve been working away on this one for a while so I’m delighted to get it over the line.
 
“I’m sure our fans will know all about Zander’s abilities having seen him feature against us for St Johnstone over the years, so it’s great to be able to bring him here to Hearts.
 
“We look for quality players and that’s what we’ve got in Zander. He’ll provide competition to Craig Gordon and Ross Stewart which will, ultimately, raise the quality of performances in our squad.”
 
Sporting Director Joe Savage said: “Zander’s quality is obviously known to everyone and because of that we’ve had to patient in bringing him in due to the options that were available to him, but we’re delighted that he’s chosen us.
 
“He’s always shone for St Johnstone, particularly when he helped them to a cup double, he always stood out so have him here providing competition in our goalkeeping department is great news.
 
“It’s another example of us using the free agent market wisely. Such is the nature of Scottish football, we can’t go out and spend millions of pounds on players so the free agent market is very important to us.

"We got Barrie McKay a week after the deadline closed last season, and look at how well he’s turned out. The hope is that if Zander is called upon then he can make the same kind of impact, and we’re all sure that he will.”