My brother’s always with me. He’d be so proud
SOUTTAR ON THE HEARTBREAK THAT DRIVES HIM, MARKING MESSI & HIS FOXES HOPES
HARRY SOUTTAR is living proof that 12 months is a long time in football.
This time last year, facing Manchester United at Old Trafford seemed a world away – or should that be a World Cup away.
Leicester City’s new £15million defender was struggling to come to terms with a cruciate knee ligament injury, wondering if his dreams of playing in Qatar with Australia would ever be realised.
Eventually, they were... only, in the background, his brother Aaron was dying of Motor Neurone Disease.
And so, first to the important stuff first in this heart-warming story of recovery.
Souttar, understandably, found it difficult to talk. But he just about kept himself together.
He said: “Before the games at the World Cup, my dad would send me a text saying: ‘Aaron would be wanting those three points tonight.
“Even before the game against Spurs last week, I received one saying: ‘He’ll be thinking about you on your home debut.
“He’s always with me. I got a tattoo on my arm a month or so after his passing.
“He was the club captain at Brechin, where we grew up. He was a massive golfer. It’s a shot of him playing at St Andrew’s, which was his favourite course. I know he would have been so proud. We always used to talk about the fact that I chose to play for Australia and my other brother John chose Scotland.
“Before one of the games at the World Cup, our boss Graham Arnold did a great speech about who you were doing it for, who is in the stand watching or back home or who the one person you’re doing it for. It was a pretty simple choice.”
Souttar is Scottish but has an Australian mum. He played for the country of his birth through the junior ranks.
But then a couple of Antipodean insiders – keeper Adam Federici at Stoke City and Ryan Mcgowan at Dundee United – tipped off the Socceroos’ hierarchy.
It led to a coffee with former Manchester United No.2 Rene Meulensteen. And anyone who has come across the silver-tonged Dutchman will know that there was not much of a decision to make. Australia it was.
The only problem was that Souttar, 24, picked up a nasty injury during a World Cup qualifier against Saudi Arabia 16 months ago. It led to a race against time to be ready.
It helped Harry that his brother John – who plays for Rangers – had suffered three Achilles’ injuries. Help was at hand.
He said: “John’s had a horrendous time of it. He’s one of the strongest people I’ve met, mentally, and my older brother passing during my injury made us closer.
“He told me right at the start: ‘If you’re ever feeling down, just write down what you’re thinking.
“There’s no need to share it with anyone. I didn’t. It was just private stuff I felt at that time and that I felt I needed to write down. But it definitely helped me.”
And so, fitness battle won, he was off to Qatar. And not just an opening Group D fixture against Kylian Mbappe’s France.
But also, after making history and qualifying, a last 16 clash against Lionel Messi.
“Playing in the World Cup is the pinnacle of football,” he said, “there was no way, in my mind at least, that I wasn’t going to make it. So to
do what we did was pretty special. And playing against those two was, as well.
“They are two totally different players. Against France, we went one-up, were playing well, but then they shifted gears.
“Against Argentina, Messi was unbelievable. The space he picks up… there wasn’t one moment, even when he was walking 20 yards offside, where you weren’t checking to see where he was.
“One minute, you’re okay, the next you’re not. The slow build-up makes it so hard to mark him. You can’t, in effect, because if you drop deep you’re playing all of them onside.
“So your concentration is on a different level. I’d watched clips of him but, you know, sometimes he’s unstoppable.”
Souttar returned, reputation enhanced. Foxes boss Brendan Rodgers was watching closely. And made his move on the final day of the transfer window. He has walked into a club finding its feet after a turbulent few months. A bit like him.
“I’ve only played two games,” he said, “anyone can play well for two games. It’s about doing it over a consistent period of time.
“It’s going well. But I’m not getting carried away with myself. As a footballer, you can get praise one minute and stick the next. “And it’s the same in life, too.” A lesson that Harry Souttar knows only too well.
‘One minute, you’re okay, the next you’re not. Sometimes Messi’s just unstoppable’