Hearts FC: Heart of Midlothian Football Club, Squad, Players and African Kick Off Times

Hearts are Heart of Midlothian, a Scottish football club founded in 1874 in Gorgie, Edinburgh, and based at Tynecastle Park since 1886. They have been champions of Scotland four times, in 1894-95, 1895-96, 1957-58 and 1959-60, and have won the Scottish Cup eight times, including in 1956, 1998 and 2012. Readers in Soweto who call the game soccer are in the right place as well, because this is the Edinburgh Hearts FC of the Scottish Premiership. A quick note for readers in Ghana: if you were looking for the Accra club, that is Accra Hearts of Oak, a different side with its own proud story.

The name needs settling first, because a search for hearts brings up clubs on more than one continent, much as shouting Ojota at a Lagos bus stop can put you on two different buses. Below you will find a quick facts box answering who coaches the club, when it was founded and where it plays, then a plain guide to the news, the squad, the honours, the Edinburgh derby and the Africans who have represented Hearts. Hearts standings, fixtures and scores refresh in the modules above; the explanations below help readers interpret those changing figures.

Who Are Hearts FC of Gorgie?

Hearts FC are a Scottish Premiership club, founded in 1874 by a group of friends from the Heart of Midlothian Quadrille Assembly Club, which was a dancing club before it was ever a football one. The name comes from the historic county of Midlothian and the Heart of Midlothian mosaic set into the Royal Mile, and Walter Scott's 1818 novel of the same name helped fix it in the city's imagination.

Where Is the Latest Hearts News?

For Hearts updates, begin with the dated note and the news feed at the top of the club hub. Look there for a signing or a contract extension; the history below supplies the longer view. African readers following Hearts can use nationality as a starting point when assessing what a loan or a new deal means for a player they follow. Hearts transfer reports remain unconfirmed until an announcement from the club.

How Do You Follow Hearts Fixtures, Results and the Table From Africa?

The Hearts fixtures list pairs each match with kick off times for WAT, EAT, SAST and GMT, covering readers from Accra to Kampala. Once a Hearts match finishes, consult the results module and the refreshed Scottish Premiership table (or log, for South African readers). To assess Hearts in the standings, compare points first, then goal difference when totals are level.

Who Is in the Hearts Squad, and Who Coaches It?

Find Hearts players grouped by position in the squad module, with the head coach identified above the names. Nationality labels help readers locate African internationals in the Hearts squad alongside players called up by Scotland. Rogers Mato and Pierre Landry Kaboré have both been part of the Hearts squad; their entries in the module establish whether they remain with the club. Perhaps the best way to use it is the way a Lagos fan reads a team sheet before kick off, looking first for the names you know from home.

What Have Hearts Won?

Hearts have won four Scottish league titles, eight Scottish Cups and four League Cups, and most of that silver arrived in two bursts. The first came in the 1890s, with league titles in 1894-95 and 1895-96 and a Scottish Cup in 1896, won 3-1 against Hibernian at Logie Green in Edinburgh, which remains the only final of that competition played outside Glasgow. The second ran through the 1950s and into the early 1960s, when the club took the League Cup in 1954, the Scottish Cup in 1956, the league in 1957-58, the League Cup in 1958 and 1959, the league again in 1959-60 and a fourth League Cup in 1962.

The Scottish Cup wins of 1998 and 2012 offer two further landmarks, with the second bringing an Edinburgh derby to the final. On 19 May 2012 Hearts beat Hibernian 5-1 in the Scottish Cup final at Hampden Park, in front of 51,041 people, and a cup final against your own city rival rarely ends with a margin like that. For a Lagos comparison, picture a Federation Cup final between two clubs from the same street, settled by four clear goals. So, if you go looking for one old Hearts match to understand the club, that final is the one to find.

From a Dancing Club to Tynecastle: The History in Brief

Hearts began in 1874 among friends who met to dance, and within a dozen years they had a permanent home in Gorgie, where Tynecastle opened on 10 April 1886 with a friendly against Bolton Wanderers. The club has played on that same site ever since, through every rebuild. Only six years after it opened, the ground was trusted with Scotland's first international there, a 6-1 win over Wales in 1892, which tells you how quickly a young Edinburgh club had become part of the national game.

The story most often told about Hearts comes from the First World War. In November 1914, sixteen Hearts players enlisted in Sir George McCrae's battalion, which became the 16th Royal Scots and was the first footballers' battalion, and seven first team players were killed in the war. It could be argued that this explains the respect the club carries well beyond Gorgie, and it is the right place for any reader new to Hearts to begin, before a single trophy is counted.

Why Do Hearts Matter to African Readers?

Nigeria and Ghana both have a place in the Hearts story through players who represented the club. Juwon Oshaniwa and Prince Buaben both played for Hearts, giving readers following those players a direct way into the club's history. A useful question is how a spell at Hearts shaped an African player's career, with derby appearances and regular selection offering two ways to explore that connection.

Morgaro Gomis and Arnaud Djoum are among the other African names in the club's past, and the squad has also included Rogers Mato and Pierre Landry Kaboré. Readers following Mato can consult the squad module to see where he fits. In Kenya, use the EAT listing to plan a Hearts viewing session; in South Africa, use SAST and the country specific viewing information to find coverage of the Edinburgh derby.

That route is perhaps why so many African fans keep an eye on Scotland at all. A strong spell in the Scottish Premiership puts a player in front of scouts from bigger leagues, and a Lagos parent would understand it as the good secondary school before the university. Hearts add a demanding derby and a loud home ground, which makes them a serious first test in Britain. If you follow a young African player into Scotland, watch his minutes in the squad module more closely than his goals, because regular starts are what open the next door.

Where Do Hearts Play? Tynecastle Park in Gorgie

Hearts play at Tynecastle Park in Gorgie, a ground of 19,852 seats that ranks as the sixth largest football stadium in Scotland. In 1954 it became the country's first all concrete stadium, and the Main Stand was rebuilt in 2017, when the ground also went back to the name Tynecastle Park. The record crowd, 53,396, came for a Scottish Cup tie against Rangers in 1932. For readers who know the Lagos grounds, think of a compact city stadium wedged into its neighbourhood, where the noise has nowhere to go but back onto the pitch.

Which Hearts Games Matter Most, and What Time Do They Kick Off?

The Edinburgh derby against Hibernian is the fixture every Hearts season circles first, and it began on 25 December 1875 with a friendly on the Meadows that Hearts won 1-0. The highest scoring competitive derby came on 21 September 1935, when Hearts won 8-3, and the biggest crowd for the fixture, 65,860, packed Easter Road on 2 January 1950 to see Hearts win 2-1. Add the 1896 and 2012 cup finals and you have a rivalry with a long memory: imagine neighbours recalling the same decisive goal whenever they meet.

For a Hearts fixture scheduled at 15:00 GMT, Accra also reads 15:00, Lagos follows at 16:00 WAT, Johannesburg at 17:00 SAST, and Nairobi and Kampala at 18:00 EAT. Use the converted Hearts fixture listing throughout the year, since Britain's clock changes affect the gap between local kick off and African time zones. Before arranging to watch Hearts against Hibernian, consult the viewing information for your country, as coverage varies by territory and season. Save a reminder against the Hearts fixture once you have checked its local start time.