Former Hearts man ends his 20-year playing career at the age of 36

The end of the season has brought the curtain down for the ex-Tynecastle defender

Former Hearts defender Jason Thomson has brought his 20-year playing career to an end by retiring at the age of 36. He took the decision following the end of the League One campaign with Kelty Hearts, where he had played for the last two seasons.

Thomson enjoyed a fine career throughout the top three tiers of Scottish football having represented six different clubs. He first emerged from the Hearts youth academy in season 2004/05 and was thrown into the first team late that season when the then-Tynecastle manager John Robertson had to compensate for flu spreading through his squad.

A Hearts fan since childhood, Thomson would spend eight years in and around the club’s first-team squad. He was loaned out to Livingston, Dunfermline and Raith Rovers during that period before finally signing permanently at Stark’s Park in summer 2012.

He was soon appointed club captain and earned legendary status along with his team-mates in April 2014. Raith completed a famous 1-0 win against Rangers in the Scottish Challenge Cup final at Easter Road, their biggest success since the League Cup win over Celtic 20 years previously.

Thomson would spend six years in total in Fife and then made the move to Arbroath in 2018. He helped them win the League One title in his first season and, after four years at Gayfield, he switched clubs again to Kelty Hearts. That would be the last stop on his playing career which has now come to an end after more than 500 professional games.