Charlie’s aiming for 50 caps and the Hall of Fame
When it comes to international football, Charlie Mulgrew has two very clear targets – to help Scotland qualify for the Euro 2020 Finals and to win 50 caps for his country. The Blackburn Rovers defender is a proud Scotsman and, at 32, knows he is entering that stage of his career where there might only be two more campaigns left in him wearing a Dark Blue jersey. He currently has 38 caps and hopes to add another on Thursday night, when Alex McLeish’s side travel to Israel for their second Nations League game. The ideal scenario would be to reach the halfcentury and enter into the Hall of Fame during the summer of 2020 in a Euro fixture at Hampden Park. He would then be joining legends such as Kenny Dalglish, Graeme Souness, Denis Law, Willie Miller and Danny McGrain. But Mulgrew is experienced enough to know it’s better not to get carried away and look too far ahead. The most important thing is to get a positive result this midweek and kick on from there. The former Celtic, Aberdeen and Dundee United star told The Sunday Post: “I’m a team player and the most important thing will always be the well-being of the country and getting good results. “That will be the aim on Thursday night in Israel. We started the section positively with a good win at home to Albania, and the challenge now is to go and build on the three points and add to our tally. “Going away from home is never easy and this game will be no exception. “However, I think we’ve had some good performances on the road in the past couple of years, and the win in Lithuania in the last campaign was as good as it’s been in many a year. We have to take heart from that. “The bottom line is we have three more competitive games to play between now and midNovember and we want to top the section. If we do that, we are in a Euro 2020 play-off. We’ll have one foot in the door. “I sense a real feeling of optimism around the squad. It’s good. “On a more personal note, I’m itching to get the jersey back on. “It gives me, and my family, a great feeling of pride and achievement when I play for my country. I have been fortunate enough to do it on 38 occasions and I want there to be many more to come in the next three or four years. “The ideal thing, of course, would be to play 50 times for Scotland. That would be my ultimate. “Very few players have managed to reach that milestone and I have a determination to do so. If it just so happened I played my 50th game during the Euro 2020 Finals, then it wouldn’t come much better than that.”