HARRY SOUTTAR could well be Scottish football's next big thing.
He is certainly pretty big for a wee brother. The Dundee United central defender, younger sibling to Dundee United defender John, stands 6ft 6in tall at the age of just 16, and he certainly measured up pretty well on his first appearance in Scotland colours against Romania's Under-17 side at Rugby Park on Tuesday night. Scot Gemmill's young side, who won the friendly 2-1, travel for an elite round in Hungary next month as they aim to emulate the achievement of last year's crop, who reached the last four in Europe.
Like his brother, alongside whom he played for the first time since Under-10 level in a Development League match against Hamilton at St Andrews last week, Harry is more renowned for his polished work on the ball than any aerial challenges. Formerly at Celtic, Souttar decided to leave Lennoxtown rather than join the St Ninian's school project, and is now developing under the watchful eye of Stevie Campbell and Dave Bowman at United.
"I'm 6ft 6in and I'm still growing," Souttar said last night. "I used to be the smallest in the family. But I'm not just a big centre-half. I like to get the ball down and play. In fact, I'm working on my spring, to jump like I'm a lot shorter."
With John working his way back to fitness after an ankle injury, the prospect of these two sharing a United first team isn't so remote. "When John was starting out, doing really well and getting attention I'd get it a lot at school," Harry said. "I got a bit fed up with it! It would be nice to progress to the stage when people are saying to him 'you're Harry's brother!'
"No, he's been good with me and it was nice to play with him last week," he added. "We've never done that in a professional setting before. We won 2-0 and I scored. The dream would be to do the same thing for the first team.
"I worked with Ian Cathro and learned a lot of my technique from him and Martin Miller at Celtic. My departure from Celtic was mutual. They wanted me to go to their development school in Lennoxtown so it was better for me to leave and United have a good record in bringing through young players."
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