Factbox - Former Aston Villa manager Paul Lambert

(Reuters) - Factbox on Paul Lambert who was fired as manager of Aston Villa on Wednesday. Born: Aug. 7. 1969 PLAYING CAREER Began his career as a midfielder with St Mirren in Scotland where he spent eight years and made over 200 appearances. Then moved to Motherwell and clocked up over 100 games. He caught the eye of Borussia Dortmund manager Ottmar Hitzfeld and joined the Bundesliga side in 1996 where he was deployed as a defensive midfielder. His crowning moment came a year later when he helped Dortmund become champions of Europe with a 3-1 victory over Juventus, Lambert creating the first goal for Karl-Heinz Riedle. After a year with Dortmund he returned home to join Celtic where he won four Scottish Premier League titles in seven seasons. INTERNATIONAL CAREER Lambert was capped 40 times by Scotland, scoring once and captaining his country a number of times. MANAGERIAL CAREER Lambert cut his managerial teeth at Scottish side Livingston but it was not a resounding success, the Scot resigning after a poor run of form. He moved on to Wycombe Wanderers and Colchester United in the English lower leagues before Norwich City moved in to secure his services. He led Norwich to the League 1 title and promotion to the second tier in 2010, then a second successive promotion to the Premier League a year later. Lambert steered Norwich to survival in the top flight the following season before he resigned to become Aston Villa manager in June, 2012. VILLA Lambert's time at Villa was mostly spent flirting with relegation with his young and inexperienced side struggling to make an impact. Villa suffered their heaviest ever defeat in the top flight when they were thumped 8-0 by Chelsea in December 2012, then a few weeks later they suffered a shock League Cup semi-final exit at the hands of fourth tier Bradford. Villa improved to finish 15th in their first season, with Lambert's summer signing, Belgium striker Christian Benteke, making a huge impact with 19 league goals. The Midlands club were 15th again a year later but despite a bright start in this campaign, have struggled to score goals and sunk into the relegation places at the weekend. (Reporting by Justin Palmer; editing by Toby Davis)