Cheeky Boy McFadden was honed on streets of Springburn to take on the best in the world

BERTI VOGTS called him a Cheeky Boy. Andy Goram called him a Cheeky B ***** d.

The rest of us simply called him gallus.

And that’s exactly what James McFadden was. Cocky, tricky, quick of thought and of feet with skills honed on the streets of Springburn rather than being curbed in the sterile environment of modern-day academy football.

He will be forever remembered for the night in September 2007 when he pulled a Craig Gordon punt out of the Parisienne skies and smashed a 35-yarder over Mickael Landreau to give Scotland a remarkable win over France.

And who could forget the sensational one-two with Darren Fletcher to carve the Dutch wide open before scoring the only goal in the first leg of the Euro 2004 play-offs, even if we’d all rather forget what happened in the second leg.

But the goal McFadden scored against Macedonia at Hampden in a 2009 World Cup qualifier, latching on to a clearance inside his own half, driving past one defender, weaving his way between another two and dribbling past the keeper before slotting into an empty net, was perhaps the truest reflection of the Motherwell, Everton and Birmingham attacker’s talents.

No coach in the world could teach that and McFadden recently admitted as much, saying: “The gallus streak I had probably came from the streets in Springburn. I was playing with older guys who were kicking me all the time.

“Everyone wanted to dribble and score goals when I was young. The goalie was always the worst player. I just seemed to have a knack for dribbling and taking people on.

“Everybody was greedy. But in