Great Scott!
Canned by Manchester United, Scott McTominay finds himself living La Dolce Vita in Napoli. Pitch waxes lyrical about the midfielder’s role at the World Cup with Scotland. Tastebuds and all.
You'd be hard-pressed to find someone who's had a better couple of years than Scott Francis McTominay. First scissor-kicking his way to the Serie A title, then helping Scotland to their first World Cup finals since France ’98, with a bicycle kick, no less. The Lancaster-born espresso-drinking Scott, now full of free-flowing hair and Mediterranean olive skin, has scored sensational goals in the games that sealed both major honours. The 29-year-old describes himself as “obsessive” about self-improvement, but that becomes genuinely difficult when positioned at the top.
‘McFratm’ – which roughly translates to McBro in Italian – has been Napoli's best player again in 2026, scoring 12 all-comp goals from midfield and showing up on the biggest occasions. In Naples, they call him Apribottiglie – the bottle opener – because he always opens the scoring (10 times for I Partenopei, to be precise). Under Antonio Conte, the number eight was named the world’s 18th best footballer in 2025, sandwiched between Real Madrid’s Jude Bellingham and Inter’s Lautaro Martínez. And looks likely to take The Azzurri to Champions League qualification again.
The La Gazzetta dello Sport-reading midfielder has also continued to impress for his nation. Scotland assistant coach Steven Naismith has said of his new-found and post-United form that “He's a beast of an athlete. He's big, he's strong, he's powerful. There’s a real pace he passes the ball with. He's got some real strength.
“Oh my goodness, the tomatoes. I never ate them at home – they’re just red water. Here, they actually taste like tomatoes. Now I eat them as a snack. I eat all the vegetables, all of the fruits. It is all so fresh. It’s incredible.”
“Scott’s played centre-half, centre-mid, as a forward. That tells you his knowledge and understanding of the game is top. But the biggest compliment I can give him is he has turned himself into the most professional athlete he can be.” Such versatility, he reckons, will be key to Scotland’s success in Mexico, Canada, and the US.
“When he was at Man United, he'll have fed off the best – to see what it takes, and what you need to do,” the former midfielder continued. “He was a scapegoat at times. When he was at a club that wasn't at their best, he got the brunt of it. And then he was brave enough to move to another country and become a star. That is what he is. The mural in Napoli tells you everything. The way he lives his life is incredible.”
Born of a city that runs on sunshine, volcanic passion and the memory of a god, Scott McTominay has become something Naples – and Scotland – haven’t dared to feel in a long time: a reason to believe again.
That mural – the one the Scot refers to – has already fixed him in the city’s folklore. He’s been afforded a small shrine too. The Scot’s title-clinching scissor kick from 2025 splashed across a three-storey Neapolitan wall. Another career-defining act of acrobatics has immortalised ‘McArt’ in Glasgow too.
After what culminated in one tartan-inspired November night at Hampden Park, Steve Clarke, Andy Robertson, the McTerminator (another Naples-nominated nickname), John McGinn are all heading to the World Cup. Kieran Tierney too – whose late, late strike would have been the story of the evening, were it not for Norwich's Kenny McLean stealing the limelight in the most audacious fashion imaginable. Picking up the ball in the centre of the park, McLean spotted Kasper Schmeichel off his line, and sent a looping effort sailing over the Danish keeper from the halfway line.
‘McFratm’ scores first for Napoli again at Stadio Diego Armando Maradona, April 2025.
Peering from World Cups from afar since Craig Brown’s side reached France ’98 – opening the tournament against reigning champions Brazil, familiar tormentors on this stage before bowing out with a 3–0 defeat to Morocco in Saint-Étienne. Some 28 years on, grown men in kilts were shedding tears again. This time, for all the right reasons.
It was Ben Gannon-Doak's floated cross from the right that started it. McTominay – scoring first again – was facing away from goal. And one could be forgiven for not believing the six-foot-three, 88kg midfielder could conceive of – let alone execute – what happened next. Instead, the now runway-fashioned Neapolitan catapulted himself into the air and planted an overhead kick beyond the reach of Schmeichel in the third minute. “Scott McTominay scored the best overhead kick I've ever seen,” to borrow from head coach Steve Clarke. “And it might not have been the best goal of the night.”
Back to Naples, which is where this resurgence all began. The Partenopei have their own claim for remembering these as the years of Scott McTominay too. Moving in August 2024, after 20 years with the Red Devils, the discarded box-to-box midfielder soon went on to become Serie A's Most Valuable Player. His 12 league goals included eight that broke deadlocks in otherwise scoreless games, in that first season McTominay was the single difference that took Gli Azzurri to their second Scudetto in three seasons.
Whilst lacking the glitz of contemporary-favourite Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, now of PSG, or the god-like presence of Maradona before him, the man they call McGyver – after the Swiss-Army-knife-wielding secret agent in 1985 TV series MacGyver – has been relentlessly, decisively, brilliantly himself since arriving. And the best version at that.
And Napoli has shown him the love. The number eight is a now-frequent feature on Neapolitan tattoos. There are McTominay birthday cakes and memes depicting him as the new Pope. San Ciro's restaurant in Edinburgh – run by brothers Ciro and Santo Sartore, born and raised in Scotland to Neapolitan parents – has a flag in the window reading: Napoli. McTominay. Pizza. In that order. That says quite a lot for a pizza restaurant. Previously the residence of Napoli’s Argentinian number 10. Heck, Diego Maradona’s own son (Diego Maradona Junior) has said “If my father is God, then he is Jesus”, in reference to the Scottish midfielder.
Without getting superfluous, some half-decent players have bagged themselves the Serie A Player of the Year award. Zidane. Kaká. Pirlo. Ronaldo. To name a few. Scott McTominay is the most recent graduate on that list – the first Scotsman to receive it. Illustrious company for a man once deemed surplus to requirements at Old Trafford. Since that aforementioned £25.7m move, he has scored 20 goals in a third of the appearances it took him to reach the same tally in red. His former manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer – so fond of playing the Scot next to Brazil’s Fred in a holding midfield – has said on more than one occasion, "How you can sell Scott is beyond me."
But McTominay, again, has had no doubts since that first taste of Naples sun. “I saw the passionate fans, I saw the coach, I saw the players and I saw an opportunity. I took it, I didn't look back. It didn't take me long because I knew that was what I wanted, and I'll never have any regrets. As soon as I put my mind to something, that's it. There's no holding me back. I love this place, I love the fans, I love my team-mates.”
Beyond the copious amounts of Vitamin D afforded by the Mediterranean sun, Italian espresso, or that new haircut, the transformation – according to Naples journalist Vincenzo Credendino – stems from a decisive shift in his role under Antonio Conte. “He's a raider, not a builder,” Credendino says. “In the system of Conte, he's the best option while you have a number nine like Romelu Lukaku, or Rasmus Højlund (and previously Victor Osimhen) who builds and holds a lot for the team.” McTominay ranks among the top midfielders in Serie A for touches in the opposition penalty area (96) and duels won (180 at the time of writing).
Credendino also draws the comparison to Conte's three-time league-beating midfielders at Juventus: “In his first seasons there, [Claudio] Marchisio and Arturo Vidal scored nine and 10 goals respectively. It's not a coincidence. McTominay is perfect for Conte as Conte is perfect for McTominay.” Other Italian journalists have taken to calling him Conte's Jolly – not in the English sense, but the Italian one: the Joker in a deck of cards, the wildcard who can play anywhere, do anything, and more often than not, win you the game.
“Napoli fans could not be happier,” adds Credendino. “He is the symbol of the attitude of this Napoli, his intensity and sacrifice in every game. They loved his kiss on the badge for his first goal against Palermo in 2024. They love that he has learned Italian, and even tried his hand at Neapolitan too.”
And another way to endear yourself to a football-mad Italian city? Praise the tomatoes. “Oh my goodness, the tomatoes,” McTominay told the club’s in-house media team after that first Scudetto-clenching season. “I never ate them at home – they're just red water. Here, they actually taste like tomatoes. Now I eat them as a snack. I eat all the vegetables, all of the fruits. It is all so fresh. It's incredible.”
‘McTerminator celebrates with Lewis Ferguson and Lyndon Dykes during their World Cup qualifier against Denmark at Hampden Park.
What a bit of Mediterranean sunshine, and diet, can do to a man. To a whole squad for that matter. As the Scottish influence in Italy continues to grow, Billy Gilmour was a league winner alongside McTominay at Napoli, delivering important performances, including one of his best in the scudetto-sealing win against Cagliari. Ché Adams currently plays for mid-table Torino and Lewis Ferguson was essential to Bologna’s Champions League qualification in 2024. Captaining his team to the Coppa Italia – their first domestic trophy in more than half a century – the attacking midfielder will play a likely foil to the Don in North America. Liam Henderson was relegated with Empoli in 2025 but replaced by left-back Josh Doig in Serie A after he helped Sassuolo to promotion.
Across the continent Andy Robertson, who has won rather a lot in his career, puts McTominay’s transformation simply. “I think he went over there with a point to prove,” said the Liverpool full-back. “He wanted to prove Man United wrong and prove people in the Premier League wrong. He's done that pretty successfully. Now he is a king over there.
“At Man United he probably lacked that consistent run of games – he was in and out. He probably didn't get the respect he deserved. But even before he was at Napoli, his standards for Scotland were unbelievable, [that just helped him] take it to a whole new level.”
Robertson won another Premier League title with Liverpool in 2025. Yet it is an indication of McTominay's standing that it is he, not the left-back, who is on everyone's lips as Scotland prepare for the World Cup.
So what of their chances? In a showing of remarkable symmetry, the Tartan Army find themselves drawn alongside five-time world champions – previous bogey-men – Brazil, and 2022 semi-finalists Morocco in Group C. Life will not be easy. Beat Haiti in the opener and everything opens up – with the tournament expanded to 48 teams, third place may be enough to reach the last 32. And after eight appearances at the Copa Mundial, a first knock-out venture would have to be seen as a success.
Clarke's endorsement of a three- or five-man defence suggests that system could well feature in North America, and Scotland's problematic positions – centre-back and goalkeeper – remain precisely that. But both concerns would be offset if Clarke can find a winning competitiveness come what June. Stick the gloves on McTominay and he might just have an answer. For now, at least, it seems Napoli’s be-nicknamed talisman can do just about anything he puts his tomato-fuelled mind to.