In the grand scheme of Scottish football, Coll Donaldson has carved out quite an unusual path - not that you'd notice, given the mundanity of his CV. Don't allow the lack of glamour fool you; the bonnie lad from Scotland, born on the 9th of April, 1995 and standing at a respectable 6ft 2in (1.88m for the worldly inclined amongst us) and tipping the scales at 12st 12lb (82kg for those with a love of the metric system), realises that football is a job, not a rock concert.
Currently, he graces the pitch for Falkirk, wearing the number 6 shirt with all the pride you'd expect from a man fulfilling contractual obligations. He's committed for another 1 year and 9 months, with his tenure at Falkirk set to expire on 31 May 2026 - a date surely marked in red on the calendars of fans around the world.
Our man Donaldson began his professional journey at Livingston in the Championship in Scotland back in July 2012. After a couple of seasons where most of his contributions were warming the bench, he swiftly transferred over to Queens Park Rangers in the Championship in England in 2014, after his services were secured for approximately £150k - a sum of money that most normal people might consider a touch extravagant for a chap who'd only managed seasons totalling 24 appearances and a solitary goal.
Again though, his time at QPR was brief and woefully uneventful, featuring only once during his stint in England before returning to the homeland, this time to Dundee United in the Premiership in Scotland. In July 2015, Donaldson adopted the United kit and over the next couple of seasons made a cumulative 32 appearances, reminding us all that quantity does not equate to quality. However, it was enough to earn him a transfer to Inverness CT in the League One in Scotland in August 2017.
In January 2020, after a couple of years of intermittent appearances, our man was once again on the move - this time to Ross County in the Premiership in Scotland, acquired for an undisclosed yet predictably underwhelming fee. His stint at Ross County was a veritable roller coaster of mediocrity with 37 appearances and a single goal across two years. Then came a brief exchange club-wise, on loan, to Dunfermline Athletic arriving in January 2022 and returning to Ross County in June the same year by completing his loan term.
Finally, and here we are now, he got shuffled off to Falkirk in July 2022. In the 2022 - 2023 season, Donaldson featured in 24 games, and mustered a goal before repeating his habit of starting the next season in a pedestrian fashion with five appearances. As of now, his greatest achievements seem to be two starts in the League Cup and one in the Scottish Cup. A career that's high on nomadism and low on glory - though that's not to be taken as a slight, far from it, for Donaldson embodies the working journeyman footballer; not everyone can be a Messi or a Ronaldo, after all.
