THE happy HITMAN
Scarface tattoo is mark of McBurnie’s ambition to fire his way to the top
ATATTOO of Tony Montana adorns Oli McBurnie’s left arm. It’s appropriate in a way. The 21-year-old striker speaks with machinegun rapidity, words rattling into each other in one long burst of unbridled enthusiasm. Unlike Al Pacino’s anti-hero in
Scarface, McBurnie unloads with a broad grin. Any cold, ruthless side is clearly reserved for the penalty area. Settling into a chair at the Scotland team hotel outside Edinburgh, his delight at receiving a first call-up to the senior squad is overwhelmingly evident.
Six goals in nine games for Barnsley — where he is on loan from Swansea City — explain why Alex McLeish has selected McBurnie as part of a new era. But the full story of how he got here is about far more than that.
It involves the perils of wearing a Scotland top in a Yorkshire school, a long-distance love of Rangers, tearful thoughts of quitting football, the pride of a 91-year-old grandmother, superstitious sock-wearing and a friendship with the equally irrepressible Jason Cummings. McBurnie relays it all with the relish of someone who feels his time has arrived.
A Scotland international at Under-19 and Under-21 level, he hopes a senior debut will now follow in Friday evening’s friendly against Costa Rica. He is only half-joking when he says he ‘might need about 47 tickets’ for all the family and well-wishers who want to be at Hampden.
While McBurnie carries the verbal twang of his birthplace in Leeds, there was never any question of dad Neil allowing his boys to harbour even the slightest thought of wearing the Three Lions.
‘My brother and I were brought up as being Scottish,’ insisted McBurnie. ‘We were brought up to celebrate when England got knocked out of the World Cup. That was my childhood. I didn’t really have any say in the matter.
‘We would go into school wearing our Scotland tops when it was a dress-down day. As we got older, we got a bit more stick from people who said: “You’re English”.
‘But we just brushed it under the carpet. We were Scottish and nobody could tell us any different.
‘My grandma, Morag, lives in Leeds now but she is originally from Glasgow, Partick I think. She is 91 and up until three or four years ago she would come to all the games, no matter where.
‘She is a proper football fanatic. When I got the call-up, I rang her and she told me that was enough for her. No matter what else happened in football, if I got called up for the Scotland first team I had done her proud.
‘That was a good phone call. International football is the pinnacle for me and this is the proudest moment of my career.
‘My grandma was even saying she should come up for the game on Friday, but I told her she could watch it on TV and I would let her off with this one...’
McBurnie and younger brother Zander, who now plays in Sweden, both joined Leeds United as schoolboys.
They were able to console each other when hope of making it at their local club was crushed. Given that he has grown to be 6ft 2in tall, the reason for Oli’s release now seems ridiculous.
‘My brother and I played for Leeds when we were growing up, but we were always Rangers fans,’ McBurnie reflected. ‘You always support who your old man supports, don’t you?
‘My brother and I got released by Leeds on the same day. I got released for not being big enough. Zander got released because they said it was too easy for him and he wasn’t trying enough. It was a tough day for the family. Was a tear shed? Definitely.
‘We had been at Leeds since we were five years old. Then, at 15, you suddenly get told that you are not there any more.
‘Quitting came across my mind a few times. At that age, I wasn’t very mentally strong at all. I had been at an academy and was almost mollycoddled.
‘I fell out of love with the game for a little bit. I went back to Sunday league and that’s when I got back to enjoying football.
‘I scored a hat-trick in my first game on trial at Bradford and they signed me after that. Phil Parkinson was the gaffer. I broke into the first team, we had a bit of a love-hate relationship and I moved on to Swansea.’
McBurnie racked up 16 English Premier League appearances — including two starts — before making the loan switch to Barnsley on the final day of the January window.
His impact at Oakwell was immediate, winning the Championship Player of the Month award for February.
That prolific form is not all that distinguishes him on the field. McBurnie wears his socks around his ankles like a throwback to a bygone era.
‘When I was 17, I was on loan at Chester in the Conference,’ he explained. ‘They didn’t have a lot of kit, so I had a big, baggy shirt and shorts.
‘All the elastic had come out of the socks. I was even skinnier back then, so these socks kept falling down. After the third game, I gave up and