Witness, if you will, the ever "grand" tale of Andy Halliday - a Scottish lad who continues to hoof a ball around a field of grass, albeit without much grandeur attached. Born on the 18th of October 1991, this regular fixture on the football scene has had quite the journey, playing primary as your typical central midfielder. His current station, should you care, is Motherwell. Halliday stands at a distinctly average height of 5ft 8in (or 1.73m for those of a metric persuasion) and weighs in at 10st 7lb (that's 67kg for, well, you know who you are). He dons jersey number 11 with some, well, let's say enthusiasm. Transfermarkt, in their infinite wisdom, appraises his worth at a trifling £173k.
Our unassuming protagonist joined Livingston back in July 2007 as a trainee - one can only assume the footballing landscape was in dire straits at the time. Having served his footballing apprenticeship, Halliday then saw fit to grace Middlesbrough with his presence. Hailed as the saviour of Teeside, he moved to the club entirely free of charge. However, his reign was rather short-lived, moving on to Walsall on loan, and then to such notable footballing powerhouses as Blackpool and Bradford City.
Once he had sampled the dizzying heights of League One, he decided to return to the relative obscurity of the Scottish Premiership, arriving at Rangers in July 2015. After four years, one could presume that he had gleaned what he could from the experience and was shipped off to Azerbaijan, of all places. However, his exile was short-lived and he was duly returned to Rangers the following year.
His travels around the footballing world would have been the stuff of legend, were it not for the distinctly average statistics he racked up along the way. Attempts to rekindle his Scottish Premiership career alongside Hearts met with similar nonplussed reactions, with the locals showing about as much enthusiasm as a stag party on a Monday morning. Once he had run his course, Halliday ended up at Motherwell (who can't seem to get enough of mediocrity) where he continues to, well, exist.
In terms of contribution to the beautiful game, Halliday has been handy in the League Cup and the Scottish Cup, though it's unclear if anyone was keeping score. I daren't suggest that there's any more excitement to come from his career but I'm sure he'll continue to make a fine living from booting a ball around a patch of grass.
