IS THIS MAN SCOTLAND’S SECRET WEAPON?
(and can you name him?)
ON FRIDAY at Hampden, the World Cup spotlight will be firmly on a man who is increasingly being mentioned i n the same breath as Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Yet, could it really be possible that Welsh wizard Gareth Bale ends up being upstaged by a relative unknown in Dark Blue who goes by the nickname ‘The White Pele’?
It has taken years for George Boyd to be given the chance to become an overnight international sensation. Now the 27-year-old attacker, who earned his moniker at non-league Stevenage, of all places, stands on the brink of finally making his full Scotland debut.
An i mpressive showing in a B international 3- 0 win over Northern Ireland at Broadwood Stadium in 2009, which left George Burley raving, was supposed to signal the beginnings of an international career.
Yet it did not turn out that way and Peterborough’s l egendary director of football Barry Fry has spent the last four years chipping away at Burley and his successor Craig Levein, pushing the case for the inclusion of a man he rates as a Premier League star-in-waiting.
Fry knew that Boyd’s day had arrived, however, when long-term admirer Gordon Strachan was appointed as successor to the sacked Levein back in January.
The colourful 67-year- old has backed his man, currently out on emergency loan at Hull City, to dazzle as brightly as Bale under the Friday night lights in Mount Florida.
‘So The White Pele may finally be getting his chance with Scotland at Hampden. It’s about time,’ chuckled Fry in conversation with Sportsmail yesterday. ‘He’ll be a sensation, you mark my words. The only surprise is that it’s taken you lot so long to call him up.
‘ George was given a shot at B international level in 2009 and he scored a great goal, made another and was, by all accounts, the best player on the park. But after that? Nothing.
‘I’ve been banging the drum for George to successive Scotland managers since then, simply because I don’t think Scotland are in a position to exclude someone of his rare talent.
‘Gavin Strachan, Gordon’s son, is our youth coach and he was here as a player before that and played and trained alongside George.
‘Gavin was blown away by George and he told his dad he had never played beside a player as good as him. Gordon then had George watched and tried to sign him for Middlesbrough — but (club owner) Steve Gibson only bid £2.5milllion and it wasn’t enough.
‘I guarantee you, if George plays on Friday night he will be the first name on the lips of the Scottish fans leaving Hampden Park.’
Fry has a long-standing policy of recruiting lower-league players and polishing them into gems. Stan Collymore, for instance, went from Southend to Liverpool and England and, more recently, Craig Mackail- Smith arrived f r om
Dagenham and Redbridge and departed a goalscoring f ul l Scotland international and a £3m signing for Brighton.
None, however, has given Fry, a former Busby Babe, the same kind of thrill as Boyd, who cost a record £260,000 to lure from non- l eague f ootball with Stevenage in 2007. And while the new Scotland call-up may lack a turn of pace, Fry believes Boyd is a throwback to great Scottish players of the past, like Davie Cooper.
‘George is one of the most gifted players I’ve ever had at this level, and one of the best pros I’ve ever seen,’ said Fry. ‘He’s played over 250 games for Peterborough and scored more than 70 goals.
‘And he’s developed a lot since coming in. I’d describe him as a Premier League player-in-waiting. He’s also a throwback to great Scottish entertainers of old, like Davie Cooper.
‘He is not the quickest, but he is quick in his head and some of the goals he scores are world class — they have to be seen to be believed.
‘After one goal he scored this season, from the halfway- l i ne ( against Huddersfield), our manager (Darren Ferguson) said if Lionel Messi had scored it we would never have heard the end of it.’
Boyd is currently on loan at Hull City, sittings econd in t he Championship, while his employers are in the relegation zone.
The decision to allow him to leave was taken after he refused to pen a new contract last April.
He was placed on the transfer list while still playing regularly, but a move to Alex McLeish’s Nottingham Forest collapsed in bizarre circumstances two hours before the transfer deadline, when Forest’s Kuwaiti owners pulled the plug, citing an ‘eye problem’ with the player.
An irate McLeish would walk out of the City Ground not l ong afterwards, while Boyd celebrated scoring for Hull against Forest last week by making mock glasses with his hands.
‘The biggest disgrace I’ve ever known in football,’ is Fry’s assessment of the saga. ‘I’ve got a piece of paper from a specialist that proves his vision is fine. What they did to George was scandalous.
‘I know from speaking to Peter Grant, Alex McLeish’s long-time assistant, that he rates George as a better player than they had when in charge of Birmingham, Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest.’
Scotland fans will be hoping that Strachan’s vision in picking ‘The White Pele’ for his first competitive squad turns out to be 20/20 in hindsight on Friday night.