The Scotland World Cup 2026 campaign is over, as is the reign of Steve Clarke. With an incoming boss needed in good time before the next international break starts in late September, we follow on from our series looking at likely candidates who can be called up for different positions. Hence below, we now look at candidates for Scotland captain. Stats are as per the date of this article.
Andy Robertson
| Age | 32 |
| Full Scotland caps | 97 |
| Year of last full cap | 2026 (neutral venue v Brazil) |
| Current club | Tottenham Hotspur |
| Current club division | English 1st tier |
| Club division Opta rating | 91.7 (1st globally) |
Robertson’s leadership attributes
The current Scotland captain was first appointed so by Alex McLeish in September 2018. Subsequently, Robertson was SMNT captain throughout the Steve Clarke era. McLeish said when he appointed Robertson as captain:
“It’s a magnificent story, I thought he was a great candidate. There were a few candidates and for me he was the outstanding one. He carries himself extremely well, he talks assertively and he knows what he’s doing on the pitch. The players take to them (sic) and equally he’s very respectful of his teammates. He has been a good story for Scottish football and he’s an inspiration to all the young players when people tell them they’re not going to make it. Keep going. You’ve got to keep going.”
Robertson for his part gave an excellent response to his appointment:
“With or without the armband I would love to pull on the country’s colours. That doesn’t change.”
Further, given that setting the right example is the most important aspect of leadership, then Manchester United boss, Jose Mourinho, in December 2018 succinctly summarised the intensity Robertson offered:
“I am still tired, just look[ing] at Robertson. He makes, I think, 100-metre sprints every minute. Absolutely incredible, and these are qualities.”
When Andy Robertson was at his peak, appearing in 3 out of 5 consecutive Champions League finals, there was no better LB in world football.
Robertson as Scotland captain
Robertson already had 22 caps under his belt before he was appointed captain. When Robertson reached 48 games as Scotland captain, he equalled the record previously set by Herculean CB, George Young. Hence, 97 SMNT cap Robertson now has a whopping 75 caps as SMNT captain. That includes being captain at all 3 major tournaments for which the SMNT has qualified for this century.
He has clearly grown & developed as a leader in that time. The Champions League winner has stated that his proudest achievement in football is captaining Scotland. Given Robertson’s impressive credentials, why a conversation on captaincy?
- 32-year-old Robertson may no longer be a Scotland automatic first pick. When Kieran Tierney is fully fit & available, he now appears to be the superior LB as evidenced by when he replaced Robertson at halftime in the Brazil v Scotland game at the World Cup.
- While Robertson is by no means the first FB to captain a football team (e.g., Cafu, Ashraf Hakimi although Hakimi popping up all over the pitch is arguably a FB in name only), FB is a peripheral position on a football pitch. Players in central positions are able to exert greater influence on their teammates, opponents & potentially the referee. A minor stat; of the top 12 most capped players as SMNT captain, 9 of them usually played CM for Scotland & 2 played at CB. Robertson at FB is the exception among the 12.
- A trait of many leaders through the ages has been that they are big, physically impressive specimens. Robertson for his part is around average height at 5’10”. While not a 100% must-have to be captain (e.g., Billy Bremner was a born leader despite being only 5’5″), there are other leaders in the Scotland squad who are much more physically impressive than Robertson.
Lewis Ferguson
| Age | 26 |
| Full Scotland caps | 27 |
| Year of last full cap | 2026 (neutral venue v Brazil) |
| Current club | Bologna |
| Current club division | Italian 1st tier |
| Club division Opta rating | 86.2 (2nd globally) |
Ferguson enhanced his credentials in the last 12 months. He is widely considered the Scotland Men’s National Team (SMNT) best player of that time for his performances both in qualifying & at the World Cup. Among 48 teams across the entire World Cup group phase, only one player covered more yards than Ferguson.
Ferguson missed Euro 2024 due to a 6 month knee injury. Otherwise though, there are no major concerns around his durability against injury.
Ferguson captained Bologna to Coppa Italia victory in 2025. On 18 May versus Atalanta in the penultimate round of the season, he surpassed Liam Henderson’s 104 game appearances record for a Scotsman playing in Serie A.
Ferguson has though been linked with moves this Summer away from Bologna. Atalanta, Inter, Lazio, Napoli & Roma in Italy, Real Betis in Spain, and Rangers in Scotland have all been linked with signing him. Even if he doesn’t take over the Scotland armband in September, he is a captaincy prospect for the future.
Ryan Gauld
| Age | 30 |
| Full Scotland caps | 6 |
| Age group Scotland caps | 25 |
| Year of last full cap | 2024 (away v Poland) |
| Current club | Vancouver Whitecaps |
| Current club division | USA 1st tier |
| Club division Opta rating | 78.7 (18th globally) |
Gauld broke into Steve Clarke’s Scotland setup for the Nations League games in 2024. Gauld subbed on in all 6 of those games, a welcome development given the lack of creativity & cutting edge exhibited by Scotland at Euro 2024.
Things then went wrong though for Gauld picking up a serious knee injury in March 2025. That kept him out of action for over a year, costing him consideration for a place in the Scotland 2026 World Cup. He has though made a first team comeback on 8 July for the Whitecaps v Cavalry FC in the Canadian Championship quarterfinals.
Gauld was club captain in his last season at Farense in Portugal. It was thus no surprise he was announced as club captain on transferring from there to the Whitecaps in 2021. He has been club captain there ever since, although that long term knee injury has cost him considerable on-pitch playing & captaincy time. When fit, he leads by example there as the skilful & often match-winning attacking fulcrum of the team.
For all that Gauld could do a job as SMNT captain, against his candidacy is that with only 6 SMNT caps, he is a relatively unestablished member of the squad. All the more so in his case, given by the time the next internationals roll along in late September, he will have been 22 months out of the squad. Also, he hasn’t the elevated credibility that comes with the achievements attained by some other candidates in this list.
At 5’6″ he hasn’t the impressive height & physique of many in this list. Again though, Bremner is the classic example that not all football captains are required to have the towering height & 46 inch chest of George Young’s bear like build.
Grant Hanley
| Age | 34 |
| Full Scotland caps | 70 |
| Year of last full cap | 2026 (neutral venue v Morocco) |
| Current club | Hibernian |
| Current club division | Scottish 1st tier |
| Club division Opta rating | 75.5 (43rd globally) |
Hanley’s 70 SMNT caps give him a ton of international experience. A strapping 6’2″ CB, his entire game is based around over-my-dead-body defending, a form of leading by example if ever there was. He offers a ton of captaincy experience from Norwich City, Blackburn Rovers & also at youth level for Scotland.
Hanley though is at the wrong end of his career to realistically be considered Scotland captain. He seems unlikely to retain his place when the next squad is announced.
Dom Hyam
| Age | 30 |
| Full Scotland caps | 4 |
| Year of last full cap | 2026 (neutral venue v Bolivia) |
| Current club | Wrexham |
| Current club division | English 2nd tier |
| Club division Opta rating | 82.2 (7th globally) |
Hyam is club captain at Wrexham. He leads by example, known for his reliability, consistency & durability. Like Hanley, Hyam as a 6’2″ CB fits the bill of being large in physical stature.
Hyam has some similarities to Gauld. Specifically, while Hyam could do a good job as SMNT captain, with only 4 full caps he is relatively unestablished in the squad. And while he has had a pro career most people can only dream of, he hasn’t the kudos of the achievements attained by some others in this list.
John McGinn
| Age | 31 |
| Full Scotland caps | 89 |
| Year of last full cap | 2026 (neutral venue v Brazil) |
| Current club | Aston Villa |
| Current club division | English 1st tier |
| Club division Opta rating | 91.7 (1st globally) |
McGinn was the de-facto vice-captain to Andy Robertson throughout the Steve Clarke reign as Scotland boss. Further, he has to date played 9 SMNT games as captain.
A naturally bubbly personality, he has infectious positivity. Also, he has the kudos of having just captained Aston Villa to Europa League victory. He has pulled out many big moments for Scotland over the years such as important goals to inspire his teammates.
Arguably though, he hasn’t displayed his best form for Scotland for a while.
Scott McKenna
McKenna captained Scotland once, namely in the McLeish era 2018 away friendly v Mexico. That is one of only a handful of occasions in his career in which McKenna has donned a captain’s armband for either club or country.
He has the 6’2″ build of many a CB captain. The 29-year-old with 51 SMNT caps has bags of international experience. He is though naturally introverted. However, Davie Weir & Callum McGregor have shown with their unflappable composure that introversion is not always a barrier to football captaincy.
McKenna though isn’t the type to perpetually drive his team mates on in the style of e.g., Dave Mackay, Billy Bremner, Graeme Souness, Roy Aitken and Scott Brown.
Kenny McLean
| Age | 34 |
| Full Scotland caps | 60 |
| Year of last full cap | 2026 (neutral venue v Brazil) |
| Current club | Norwich City |
| Current club division | English 2nd tier |
| Club division Opta rating | 82.2 (7th globally) |
McLean has taken over the armband in some situations mid-game when neither Robertson nor McGinn have been on the pitch. Like Robertson, Hanley, McGinn, McTominay & Tierney in this list, he is a vastly experienced international. And like some others in this list McLean is a current club captain.
Against McLean is that aged 34, his place in the squad is potentially at risk, even though he was Norwich Player of the Season again last season (2nd time in 3 seasons). Even if he retains his place in the SMNT squad, he is unlikely to be considered a starting 11 first choice. McLean missed the Euro 2020 finals due to injury (similar to Ferguson missing out in 2024). McLean similarly though doesn’t fall into the bracket of injury-prone footballers.
Scott McTominay
| Age | 29 |
| Full Scotland caps | 73 |
| Year of last full cap | 2026 (neutral venue v Brazil) |
| Current club | Napoli |
| Current club division | Italian first tier |
| Club division Opta rating | 86.2 (2nd globally) |
If the most important attribute of leadership is setting the right example, how about this?
McTominay for Scotland
Ripped like Anthony Joshua, Scott McTominay has the 6’4” build of a titan. He, Don Hutchison, Kieran Tierney & Dominic Matteo, are the only players to represent Scotland this century who, combined with their multi-eligibility, rejected the genuine possibility of playing for a significantly higher ranked team to instead play for Scotland. (Note: See below re Tyler Fletcher). McTominay has captained Scotland once, in the 2023 away friendly v France.
Since Steve Clarke moved McTominay from primarily defensive to primarily attacking duties, he has been Scotland’s biggest goal threat. His goals include both strikes in the momentous 2-0 Euro qualification win at Hampden against Spain in March 2023. No player has scored in a competitive victory without the need for a penalty shootout, over Spain since then (Colombia’s win against the Spaniards in March 2024 was in a friendly. Portugal defeated Spain in the 2025 Nations League final on penalties).
Only an infringement awarded against Jack Hendry denied McTominay the rocket free-kick goal in Spain that was being described at the time as the equivalent goal of the decade to the James McFadden goal in Paris. Not to be denied, McTominay’s world record height, overhead kicked goal against Denmark in November has been described as the greatest Scotland goal of the television era.
McTominay, like Ferguson, is one of the top 3 players to cover the highest yardage of any team in the World Cup 2026 group stage. McTominay’s 8 attempts on goal were the highest of any Scotland player at that World Cup. Whatever the shortcomings of Scotland were at the World Cup, it was not lack of determination from McTominay nor indeed Ferguson.
McTominay driving others on
Despite not wearing the armband, in October 2020 for Manchester United in the Champions League after going 3-0 up against RB Leipzig, McTominay was caught on mic driving on his teammates:
“Be aggressive! More aggression!”
Similarly, in pre-match tunnel footage before the World Cup qualification decider against Denmark in November last year, McTominay was caught on camera urging on his teammates:
“Come on, we want this more than they do boys. We want it fucking miles more than they do, let me tell you.”
Sheringham gets what McTominay offers
Teddy Sheringham in August 2025, commented on McTominay’s character & leadership abilities, a year after McTominay had transferred to Napoli. While Sheringham specifically spoke in the context of McTominay at Manchester United, these attributes are obviously transferable to international football:
“When you look back over the last couple of decades, you look at the desire and the passion and the will to win, the desire to keep going when you have leaders like Roy Keane, Tony Adams, John Terry and Steven Gerrard. These are the real leaders that drag other players along on the pitch. Scott McTominay was one of those for me. He led by example. He had the desire.“
Sheringham added:
“He had the passion. He had the technique as well to lead by example and drag other people along.”
See this video of what ex-teammates say about the inspiration effect Roy Keane had on them. Captain Scott McTominay can be like that for Scotland.
Setting standard & expectations
Alex Ferguson in his angry 1983 post-cup final win interview for Aberdeen, commented, “Our standards have been set long ago”. While Ferguson subsequently admitted his anger was inappropriate, the point about the importance of standards still holds water.
Similarly, McTominay in this interview in December 2025, a month after qualifying for World Cup 2026:
McTominay: “I expect us to go with somewhat of a different mentality that we can go & beat these teams. We need to remove the thoughts in our head that this team is superior to us or that nation is superior to us. We have to go there with almost a little bit of arrogance where we can play against anyone & do as well as we possibly can & then take results from these teams. So I feel like it has to be a bit of a mentality switch to get the best performance that we can have.”
Kate Scott: What would feel like a successful World Cup for Scotland?
McTominay: Winning it.
OK, things at the World Cup clearly didn’t work out for Scotland. At least though McTominay has the mindset of a Scotland team who mean business regardless of the opposition.
In that same interview he makes it clear that he aspires to play at the top for another decade.
Star power
Every individual, group & organisation that has ever existed has a default brand. A brand is simply how an individual, group or organisation presents itself to others. It is thus up to each individual, group and organisation to decide whether to accept their default brand, or constructively augment that brand to empower goal attainment. That is the reality of life, ever more so in the digital age.
McTominay’s aura has the prestige that he won Serie A in his first season at Napoli and was Player of the Season in Italy. His form earned him a Ballon d’Or nomination, in which he was 18th. He is the highest-profile player in the squad & the nearest thing in the current Scotland squad to a football superstar.
Making McTominay captain will enhance the SMNT brand. That is important for player recruitment. In the ever-globalising world, there are numerous players out there with a spectrum of talent & potential, with multi-nation eligibility. A nation recruiting the best of these players will make a difference between success & failure.
Multi-eligibility talents
The obvious immediate example is Chris Brady. While Brady seems a long shot in terms of playing for Scotland, there are others who are currently much more realistic.
Rangers’ Kyle Glasgow, despite 4 youth caps for Portugal in December & January, has most recently again represented Scotland.
Aston Villa’s Jack McGrath previously represented England before switching to most recently playing & starring for Scotland youth teams.
Manchester United’s Tyler Fletcher earlier this year verbally committed to playing for Scotland. He as yet though isn’t tied to playing only for Scotland, so we have to see how that plays out. Also, he has stated that he hopes that his twin brother, Jack, will switch from playing for England to committing to Scotland.
Competition for talent though will remain fierce. Below are more examples of talents currently with multi-eligibility.
Manchester City’s Caelan-Kole Cadamarteri represented England before switching to represent Scotland. He was though earlier this summer called up by the full Jamaica squad for the Unity Cup. He didn’t though play any match minutes in that competition.
Celtic’s Zion Pullan in May represented Spain after previously playing in the Scotland youth setup.
Dundee United’s Lorenzo Sassetti in May represented (& scored for) Italy, after previously playing youth football for Scotland.
There are a lot more than these few examples.
Lawrence Shankland
| Age | 30 |
| Full Scotland caps | 22 |
| Year of last full cap | 2026 (neutral venue v Brazil) |
| Current club | Rangers |
| Current club division | Scottish 1st tier |
| Club division Opta rating | 75.5 (43rd globally) |
Shankland was club captain at Hearts before his transfer this Summer to Rangers. With Derek McInnes having also moved from Tynecastle to Ibrox this Summer, Shankland now seems a strong possibility to take over the Rangers captaincy. That would be even likelier if Nico Raskin moves on from Ibrox.
For all of his captaincy experience with Hearts & 2 footed finishing, Shankland seems among the less convincing candidates to be Scotland captain. 14 of his 22 SMNT caps have been as sub. Further, he has never cemented himself as a regular even in the squad. It remains to be seen if that changes when the new Scotland boss is appointed & starts naming squads and issuing team sheets.
Kieran Tierney
| Age | 29 |
| Full Scotland caps | 58 |
| Year of last full cap | 2026 (neutral venue v Brazil) |
| Current club | Celtic |
| Current club division | Scottish 1st tier |
| Club division Opta rating | 75.5 (43rd globally) |
Kieran Tierney was born in the Isle of Man. He could theoretically have opted to play for any of England, Northern Ireland or Wales & also the Isle of Man, rather than Scotland. He was born to Scottish parents & moved to Wishaw when 10 months old. He started playing for Scotland from U18 level. He captained Scotland once, in a 2017 home friendly v Netherlands. He has captained the SMNT once, in a 2017 home friendly v Netherlands.
Impressing with all-action displays in the earlier part of his stint at Arsenal, Tierney was touted by some as a future club captain there. That though didn’t materialise, with Tierney eventually moved on likely due to his indurability against injury.
Tierney had a good season just past at Celtic. He seems, as mentioned above, well positioned to now be the de-facto first choice Scotland LB. A captain playing at FB though as also mentioned above, is less well positioned to influence than centrally positioned players.
Tierney is the one player in this list who is injury-prone. That injury propensity will impact his playing availability.
Who should be Scotland captain?
It is our overwhelming opinion that Scott McTominay should be Scotland captain. The man is a born leader. If someone were to put together a description of what they were looking for in an ideal football captain, Scott McTominay would fit the bill.
He has the attributes not just to be a great Scotland captain, but to also be one of the very best captains in world football. Given captaincy, he would not just embrace the role, he would thrive, & not just by inspiring those around him. Specifically, being Scotland captain would also be an inspiration to him to elevate his contributions to a new level. He has what it takes to go down in history among great Scottish captains playing in central midfield roles, like Dave Mackay, Bruce Rioch, Archie Gemmill, Graeme Souness, Roy Aitken (often played in MF for Scotland despite usually playing CB for Celtic), Gary McAllister, Paul Lambert, Barry Ferguson, Scott Brown, Darren Fletcher & the diminutive no-nonsense Scot pictured below.
This is by no means a slight on Andy Robertson nor indeed his endeavours as Scotland captain. He consistently comes across as a great guy who is Scotland through & through, & seemingly destined to overtake Kenny Dalglish as the SMNT record cap holder. It is though the right time for captaincy change.
