John Souttar dreams of emulating his younger brother, Harry, who played for Australia at the last World Cup in Qatar, by reaching next year’s finals.
“It’s the pinnacle for everyone,” the Rangers centre-half said on the eve of Scotland’s seismic World Cup qualifier against Greece in Piraeus on Saturday night.
“We’ve got a long way to get there, but watching that [his brother in Qatar] a few years ago was amazing.
“My family was over there and it was a proud moment watching him play in that and also how well he done over there. I never made it over myself, but my whole family was there.
“It’s probably the pinnacle for all footballer. What they dream of doing is going to the World Cup.”
Souttar is on an injury-free run but has experienced horrendous injuries in his career and has lost seasons because of them.
“If you look through any footballer in the squad, they’ve all got their own individual stories, but all of our motivation is on getting the country to the World Cup and every one of us will be doing everything we can to do that,” he said.
“Everyone’s excited, everyone’s looking forward to it and we’ve had a good week away, everyone together [in a warm weather camp in Turkey]. We got a lot of work done and everyone’s ready to go.
“If we bring the best version of ourselves, we’re more than capable of getting a result here. I’m sure that everyone’s going to be high to get this result.”
Souttar is too young to remember the last time Scotland played at a World Cup – he was only a child – but he has heard the stories and needs no telling about how special it would be if Scotland made it.
“My family went,” he revealed. “My older brother and my dad, they went to the World Cup in France. My uncle as well.
“It was always a big thing for my family and there’s always pictures and stories about people being there. Everyone knows how big a deal it is.”