James Robert Langfield (born 22 December 1979) is a Scottish football player and coach, who is currently the goalkeeping coach at St Mirren. Langfield, who played as a goalkeeper, started his career with Dundee. He then played for Partick Thistle and Dunfermline Athletic before joining Aberdeen in 2005. He went on to spend the next decade with Aberdeen, regaining his place in the team after being dropped for off-field indiscipline in 2007, a loss of form in 2008 and then again in 2012 after suffering a brain seizure that kept him out of competitive action for nine months. He was voted the Aberdeen player of the year in 2009 and was part of the team that won the Scottish League Cup in 2014.
Langfield played for Scotland in a B international in 2007 and was a member of the senior squad without being selected for a full cap. In 2015 Langfield joined hometown club St Mirren and played regularly until May 2017 before becoming their goalkeeping coach. Langfield was caretaker manager of St Mirren after Jim Goodwin left the club in February 2022.
Born in Paisley, Langfield started his football career as a youth player at Dundee, having been signed by Jim Duffy at sixteen years old. After progressing through the club’s youth system, he was called up to the first team by manager Jim Duffy as an unused substitute following an injury of Billy Thomson and Gary McGlynn, in a 2–1 win against Dumbarton in a Scottish League Cup match on 13 August 1996. On 17 October 1998, Langfield made his professional debut for Dundee, coming on as a 59th-minute substitute for the injured Rab Douglas, in a 2–2 draw against Aberdeen. A month later on 19 November 1998, he made his first start for the club and played the whole game, in a 1–1 draw against Kilmarnock. Langfield went on to make two appearances in the 1998–99 season. In March 1999, he signed his first professional contract with Dundee.
The 1999–00 season continued to see Langfield as Dundee’s second choice goalkeeper behind Douglas. On 15 February 2000, he made his first appearance of the season against Ayr United in third round replay of the Scottish Cup and played all the way to a 1–1 draw, as the club loss 7–6 in a penalty shootout. In a follow–up match, Langfield made his first league appearance of the season, in a 3–1 loss against Aberdeen. Manager Scott acknowledged his performance, saying: "Jamie Langfield has done well for us and the defeat by Aberdeen was certainly not down to him in any way." At the end of the 1999–00 season, he made two appearances in all competitions.
Following the departure of Rab Douglas, Langfield found himself competing for the first-choice goalkeeper role with Marco Roccati for the 2000–01 season. On 21 October 2000, he made his first appearance of the season, in a 2–1 loss against Motherwell. On 2 January 2001, Langfield made his second appearance of the season, coming on as a 75th-minute substitute, in a 3–0 loss against Hibernian. However, prior to the match against Celtic on 4 April 2001, Roccati suffered an injury while warming up, prompting to put on Langfield, as Dundee went on to lose 2–0. In a follow–up match, he kept his first clean sheet in his professional career, in a 2–0 win against Aberdeen. Following this, Langfield was the club’s first-choice goalkeeper for the rest of the 2000–01 season. He then kept another clean sheet for Dundee, in a 2–0 win against Celtic on 13 May 2001. At the end of the 2000–01 season, Langfield made nine appearances in all competitions.
Ahead of the 2001–02 season, Langfield signed a three-year contract extension with Dundee. He continued to be the club’s first-choice goalkeeper, beating ahead of Julián Speroni, Paul Mathers and Derek Soutar. Langfield made his European debut, starting the whole game, in a 0–0 draw against Smederevo 1924 in the first leg of the UEFA Intertoto Cup’s first round. However in the return leg, Dundee went on to lose 5–2 and was eliminated from the tournament. In the opening game of the season against local rivals, Dundee United, he gave away a penalty and was booked in the 20th minute, but saved a penalty from Charlie Miller, as the club drew 2–2. Langfield was instrumental in a 1–0 win against Livingston on 13 August 2001 when he made saves to keep a clean sheet. His performance saw him linked with a move to Rangers but the move never materialised. However in a match against Motherwell on 31 October 2001, he made a mistake that led to Karl Ready "to guide his back-post header into the net off the underside of the bar", as Dundee won 3–1. Langfield kept a clean sheet on 1 December 2001 and 8 December 2001 against Rangers and St Johnstone respectively. However, he continued to make mistakes in the club’s defeat in the next three league matches. Langfield acknowledged his mistake, saying: "I have had my ups and downs this season. I admit that I was making the odd mistake, but did not at any time feel that my overall game gave cause for concern." He was soon dropped as Dundee’s first-choice goalkeeper in favour of Speroni and never played for the rest of the 2001–02 season and eventually for the club again. Despite this, Langfield made twenty–three appearances in all competitions.
The next two seasons saw Langfield remain as the Dundee’s second choice goalkeeper behind Speroni. He appeared as an unused substitute in the Scottish Cup final, losing 3–0 against Rangers. Langfield was released by Dundee when the club went into administration. He made thirty–eight appearances in all competitions.
Short terms spell with Scottish clubs
Shortly after leaving Dundee, Langfield signed a short term deal with Raith Rovers. He made his debut for the club, starting the whole game, in a 4–1 loss against St Johnstone on 29 November 2003. Langfield started all five matches for Raith Rovers and kept two clean sheets along the way.
On 15 January 2004, Langfield left Raith Rovers to join Partick Thistle until the end of the 2003–04 season. Two days later on 17 January 2004, he made his debut for the club, starting the whole game, in a 2–1 loss against his former club, Dundee. After making another appearance, Langfield was dropped for the next five matches. On 9 March 2004, he made his return from injury, starting the whole game and kept a clean sheet, in a 0–0 draw against Aberdeen. Following this, Langfield regained his first-choice goalkeeper role at Partick Thistle for the next seven matches. After being dropped from the squad, the club was relegated to the Scottish Football League First Division. At the end of the 2003–04 season, he made ten appearances in all competitions.
His performance attracted interests from Dunfermline Athletic. On 12 May 2004, Langfield signed for Dunfermline Athletic on a free transfer. However, he remained as the club’s second choice goalkeeper behind Derek Stillie throughout the 2004–05 season. Langfield made no appearances for Dunfermline Athletic.
In the January transfer window of 2005, Langfield was linked with a move to Aberdeen despite Dunfermline Athletic keen on keeping him by offering a two–year contract. On 21 June 2005, he officially signed for Aberdeen on a three–year contract. Upon joining the club, Langfield said: "I'm just here to work hard and hopefully I'll push Ryan all the way. I anticipate a big year for the club. We're moving in the right direction after last year's great season and the manager has made some good signings."
At the start of the 2005–06 season, Langfield was the second-choice goalkeeper behind Ryan Esson. On 23 August 2005, he made his Aberdeen debut in the second round of the Scottish League Cup, and kept his first clean sheet for the club in a 3–0 win against Berwick Rangers. On 8 November 2005, Langfield made his second appearance for Aberdeen, in a 1–0 loss against Motherwell in the quarter-finals of the Scottish League Cup. However, Esson soon was replaced by Langfield for the match against Dunfermline Athletic and kept his first league clean sheet for the club, in a 0–0 draw on 10 December 2005. He kept another clean sheet in a follow–up match against Livingston.