Che aims to be top marksman in the Stevie revolution
STEVE Clarke’s bid to add firepower to his squad ahead of the World Cup qualifiers and Euros has seen him call up a player named after a famous revolutionary. Che Guevara may have been executed in 1967 but, 29 years later, coverage of the search for his missing bones at an airstrip near Vallegrande in Bolivia caught the eye of expectant mum Frances Adams. ‘Che Guevara was in the news around the time I was born and I think it was something to do with where his body was buried,’ revealed Southampton striker Che Adams last year. ‘My mum just really liked the name. So that’s it. It was where I got my name from.’ While his namesake fought to spread the message of Marxism, young Che’s own struggles during his formative years involved railing against the notion he wasn’t good enough to make the grade as a professional footballer. Released afterseven years by Coventry City at the age of 14, the Leicester-born forward drew on a resilience that would see him ascend from non-league football to become a Premier League shooting star with Southampton.
‘It was hard,’ Adams said last year of his release by Coventry. ‘Some people can get embarrassed. But you can either give up or carry on stronger. I wanted to prove I was good enough.’
After finishing school, Adams enrolled at college to get a qualification in sports studies. But it was on the pitch where he started to make the grade with Ilkeston Town in English football’s seventh tier, beginning the 2014-15 season with 11 goals and nine assists in 16 games.
‘It was just a question of how hard you’re going to get kicked (at that level),’ he said. But then I was reading all sorts (of speculation) about me. It was special and overwhelming.’
Likened by one Ilkeston coach to the Brazilian Ronaldo for his power, a big move was inevitable and, in 2014, Nigel Clough paid £135,000 to sign him for Sheffield United.
A successful spell at Bramall Lane saw him move to Birmingham City for £2million in 2016, where his form brought him to the attention of then Scotland boss Alex McLeish.
Despite the former England Under-20s international turning down the opportunity to play in Euro 2020 qualifiers against Kazakhstan and San Marino, McLeish declined to close the door.
‘Che’s agent said he didn’t feel he was quite ready to come and play for Scotland just yet,’ said McLeish in 2019. ‘But we are a small nation and I would rather not cut my nose off to spite my face.’
Adams’ 22 goals across 46 Championship games in one season saw his value soar and he was snapped up by Southampton for £14m in the summer of 2019.
A year’s wait for a first goal for the Saints came to a spectacular end last July with a 40-yard winner against Manchester City. He has scored seven times in the current season, including goals in each of his last three Premier League matches.
‘I was probably trying too hard and overthinking it,’ he said of his goal drought. ‘Now I’m in a position where a lot of things come intuitively. I play my best football when I’m not overthinking it.
‘To score against City was a sigh of relief. It was an unbelievable feeling.’
Approached again by Scotland, with club teammate Stuart Armstrong putting in a good word for the national set-up, this time Adams said yes.
Qualifying through a grandparent, his change of heart has led to some online grumbling — and accusations that the 24-year-old is only interested in representing Scotland now they have reached a major finals for the first time since 1998.
Should Adams net the winner against England at Wembley in June, however, the politics behind the selection of this particular Che will be long forgotten.