I FEEL SOU BLESSED
Foxes star faced Messi & Mbappe but his hero is late brother Aaron
HARRY Souttar is living proof of that 12 months is a long time in football.
This time last year, facing Manchester United at Old Trafford would have seemed a world away – or maybe 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 could still be realised.
Eventually, they were.
But at the same time, his brother – Aaron (below) – was dying of Motor Neurone Disease.
Souttar – understandably – found it difficult to talk about that loss. 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 Tottenham last week, I received one saying, ‘He’ll be thinking about you on your home debut’.
“Aaron’s always with me. I got a tattoo on my arm a month or so after his passing.brechin, where we grew “He was the club captain at 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 is in the stand watching, or back home, or who is the one person you’re doing it for.
“That was a pretty simple choice for me.”
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, since retired, and Ryan Mcgowan at Dundee United, now St Johnstone – tipped off the Socceroos’ hierarchy.
Decision
It led to a coffee with former Manchester United No.2 Rene Meulensteen. And anyone who has met the silver-tonged Dutchman will know that there wasn’t much of a decision left to make after that: Australia it was.
Souttar, now 24, picked up a nasty injury during a World Cup qualifier in November 2021 – starting his race against time to be ready for Qatar.
It helped that his brother John – who plays for Rangers – has been through three Achilles’ injuries.
Souttar 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.
“John told me right at the start, ‘If you’re ever down, write down what you’re thinking, and there’s no need to share it with anyone’. I didn’t. It was just private stuff I felt at that time and needed to write down. But it definitely helped me.”
Fitness battle won, he was off to Qatar. Cue an opening group fixture against Kylian Mbappe’s France. Then, after making history and qualifying, Australia’s last-16 clash against Lionel Messi and Argentina.
“Playing in the World Cup is the pinnacle of football,” Souttar said, “There was no way that I wasn’t going to make it. So to do what we did was pretty special. And so was playing against those two.
“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 while he was walking 20 yards offside – when you weren’t checking to see where he was. One minute, you’re OK, the next minute 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.
“I had watched clips of Messi but sometimes he’s unstoppable.”
Souttar has since walked into a club finding its feet again. He said. “It’s going well. I’m not getting carried away. As a player, you can get praise one minute and stick the next. It’s the same in life, too.”
That’s a lesson Souttar knows only too well.