Man of the moment Billy Gilmour has already conquered the Chelsea midfield, and now has his sights set on Scotland as well.
Following his back-to-back Man of the Match performances this week against Liverpool and Everton, many are expecting the 18-year-old to get the call from Scotland boss, and former Chelsea right back and coach, Steve Clarke. Scotland will be contesting the Euro 2020 qualifying playoffs against Israel, and then potentially against the winner of Norway and Serbia.
But for now, he is only been named to the under-21 squad, who will be taking on Croatia and Greece in Euro U21 qualifying during the upcoming international break.
We will only find out whether Clarke takes a chance on Gilmour next week. By then, the young midfielder will have probably played a couple more games for Chelsea, against Aston Villa in the Premier League and Bayern Munich in the Champions League.
“He’s done excellently for all of the national youth groups and moving forward I’m very confident he will get to play for the full squad as well but at the moment he’s an under-21 player until Steve Clarke decides otherwise.
“I spoke to Steve, met Steve and right now Steve is happy for Billy to be selected for the under-21s. But, as is the same for all the players, at any moment that can change.”
-Scot Gemmill; source: FourFourTwo
Either way, Billy is surely on his way to being a Scotland mainstay sooner than later.
#SCO21s | Scot Gemmill has named his Scotland Under-21s squad for our upcoming @UEFAUnder21 qualifiers against Croatia and Greece.
— Scotland National Team (@ScotlandNT) March 10, 2020
Croatia (H) – Friday 27 March, 7pm – Tynecastle Park
Greece (A) – Tuesday 31 March – 5pm – Theodoros Vardinoyannis Stadium#YoungTeam pic.twitter.com/W7YYlSWSmJ
The Scotland U21 squad in full is as follows:
GOALKEEPERS: Ross Doohan (Ayr United, on loan from Celtic); Robbie McCrorie (Livingston, on loan from Rangers); Kieran Wright (Alloa, on loan from Everton);
DEFENDERS: Daniel Harvie (Ayr United); George Johnston (Feyenoord); Barry Maguire (Motherwell); Lewis Mayo (Partick Thistle, on loan from Rangers); Ross McCrorie (Portsmouth, on loan from Rangers); Patrick Reading (Stevenage); Stephen Welsh (Celtic);
MIDFIELDERS: Lewis Ferguson (Aberdeen); Billy Gilmour (Chelsea); Andy Irving (Hearts); Stephen Kelly (Ayr United, on loan from Rangers); Lewis Moore (Hearts); Lewis Smith (Hamilton);
FORWARDS: Louis Appere (Dundee United); Jamie Gullan (Hibernian); Fraser Hornby (KV Kortrijk, on loan from Everton); Connor McLennan (Abrdeen); Glenn Middleton (Bradford City, on loan from Rangers)