HAVING only made his Scotland debut when he came on in the second half of the Nations League game against Poland at Hampden on Thursday night, Ryan Gauld is still very much an international novice.

There is precious little, though, that the Vancouver Whitecaps playmaker doesn’t know about Portugal and the Portuguese game.

The former Dundee United wonderkid spent no fewer than seven years plying his trade here with Sporting Lisbon, Vitoria de Setubal, Aves and Farense and is very much the footballer he is today because of it.

Steve Clarke will probably put his faith in the more experienced members of his squad, in Ryan Christie, in Scott McTominay, in John McGinn, once again when the national team play their second Group A1 match at the Estadio da Luz this evening given the standard of the opposition.

He will be keen for his charges to put the 3-2 defeat they suffered in midweek after conceding a penalty in the seventh minute of injury-time behind them and will field a strong starting line-up which he feels is capable of recording a much-needed morale-boosting result.

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But could Gauld feature in his spiritual homeland too? There is every chance the skilful 28-year-old will be involved in proceedings at some stage given his familiarity with the hosts’ style of play and their personnel. Not to mention the cutting edge he can give Scotland in the final third.

Taking on the likes of Ruben Dias, Nuno Mendes, Joao Palhinha, Bruno Fernandes, Bernardo Silva, Joao Felix, Diogo Jota and Cristiano Ronaldo would ordinarily be intimidating for a footballer with just one cap to his name. The attacking midfielder, however, is looking forward to the occasion enormously.  

He has taken an awfully long time to fulfil the enormous potential which he showed when he first broke through at Tannadice aged just 16 back in 2012. It would, then, be a sweet moment for him if he was to don a dark blue jersey in the country which did so much to aid his development.  

(Image: Andrew Milligan - PA) “It's a bit of a coincidence that the first time I'm called back in we’re back over in Portugal,” he said. “It's obviously a country that I've got great memories of. It kind of set the path of my career. I'm pleased to be back. It's been a weird feeling coming back. 

“I always say if I could go back and do it again I still would even though there was a lot of ups and downs. Probably even more downs than there was ups. But I still wouldn't change it.
“I loved my time here, the people I met and the places I lived and stuff. I loved being here. So, yeah, I've only got good things to say about the place. I’m pretty fluent in Portuguese. I got to see Lisbon, Porto, the Algarve. Seven years is a long time to be there. I made good friends there and I was just looking forward to coming back.” 

Gauld added: “I'm not sure if my knowledge of Portuguese football and the Portuguese players will matter to be honest. They've got a team full of European superstars, so that could be a tough game no matter what.

“I don't know if playing a few years in the First Division could make a big difference. It might. But, you know, we just have to go out and play our game and do what we can to come away with a result. 

“I've always been really well supported from people over here. I still get the odd message here and there wishing me luck. Hopefully I can be involved. It would be nice to play well in front of them.”

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Gauld has played against Benfica at the Estadio da Luz with Farense and knows many of the Portugal players personally. He is under no illusions about how demanding the 90 minutes will be and how difficult it will be to come away with a result from the 65,000 capacity arena.

He was, though, impressed with how Scotland performed during Euro 2024 qualifying and is certain the visitors can compete with their feted rivals if they believe in themselves and get back to the same high level.  

(Image: SNS)

“Palhinha (the Bayern Munich midfielder) and I played in the Sporting Lisbon B team together,” he said. “Rafael Leão (the AC Milan winger) was just a young boy training with us when we were in the B team.

“He's unbelievable as well.  He trained with us when he was 13 or 14. He was training with us and we were 18 or 19. Even at that age you could see how good he was. And then there is Bruno Fernandes. I've done a pre-season with him at Sporting as well. You look through their whole team, there's quality everywhere.

“We know it's going to be a really hard game. They've got a great team, they were one of the favourites for the Euros and they didn't quite live up to expectations. So, they'll be out to prove how good they are. I'm sure it's going to be a tough 90 minutes. But you need to believe you can go there and get something.

“You need to take the positives out of the game. You can't go into a game just thinking negative. You've got to go in with aspirations to go and play well and get a result. This team has showed before, in the build-up to the Euros, they're capable of getting results against good teams.

“Like Spain at home and then even Spain away with a really good performance. They've shown they can play well against the big nations and someday it's going to have to be the same.”