Scouser Lang signs up for something special with Steelmen
AT one stage, the right-back in a Liverpool youth team with Trent Alexander-Arnold at centre-forward, you’d forgive Callum Lang for wondering what might have happened had they not swapped positions.
While Alexander-Arnold tucks away a Premier League medal to go alongside his Champions League trinket from last year, Lang is still trying to carve out his niche in the game, having moved to Wigan in 2017.
Still only 21, he has now been farmed out by his parent club four times, his latest loan move bringing him to Motherwell.
‘Trent came through in the same age group and was playing as a striker at the time,’ he recalls. ‘I was a defender, so we have kind of swapped positions.
‘We follow each other on Instagram and he’ll give me a little message when I’ve done well but I haven’t really seen him outside of football. I came up against him last year (for Shrewsbury in the FA Cup) and he sorted me out with his shirt after the game.’
Short of match practice, Lang is unlikely to start Motherwell’s first Premiership game of the new season at Ross County tomorrow night but, with nine named substitutes, five of whom can be used, he may feature at some stage in Dingwall.
Once he’s up to speed, there will be a distinctly Evertonian flavour to Motherwell’s newly-minted forward line this season.
Stephen Robinson has already brought former Goodison academy graduate Chris Long back to Fir Park for another year and, despite his Anfield connections, Lang admits his allegiances also lie on the blue side of Stanley Park.
Delighted to learn that Robinson’s assistant Keith Lasley is another confirmed Toffees fan, he already feels quite at home.
‘All my family are Everton fans so, when I first went on trial at Liverpool, I wore the England kit and kept it safe,’ he laughs. ‘I didn’t know about Keith until he messaged me and I saw his WhatsApp picture.
‘I thought: “I am sure that’s an Everton kit”, so I clicked on it. I am buzzing to have a few Blues around me. That’s sound.’