Ballon d’Or nominee Scott McTominay is best Scottish success in 40 years

It’s all about the company you keep. There he was, Scott McTominay, rubbing shoulders with Jonny Evans, Altay Bayindir and Toby Collyer while barely anyone paid attention. The day of his last active service as a Manchester United player and he was in with the substitutes yet again. There or thereabouts, neither essential nor indispensable. An option. A solid squad guy. The story of his United career as far as too many managers were concerned.

McTominay saw a wee bit of the action that day last August, given the last 11 minutes when Bruno Fernandes had done his bit in a league game at the Amex Stadium. Brighton & Hove Albion scored a 90th-minute winner and that was it, the flat and unheralded end of McTominay after a 22-year association with United.

There were just over 250 appearances over nine seasons and many more debates about whether a) you needed a guy like him to win a league or b) having someone like him suggested you never would. Some respect and some ridicule. By the time United were being battered 3-0 at home by Liverpool a week later, their spare-part, overlooked talent had begun the gear change to end them all.

McTominay with Pope Leo XIV in May ALAMY

Now? Scott McTominay, Ballon d’Or nominee, officially one of the best footballers in Europe, a line to make a United fan choke on their cornflakes. A nomination as the final act and recognition of a debut season that became absurdly fantastic and rewarding. A guy could get lost in Naples, drowned by the fanaticism and pressure of delivering for one of the most suffocating and intense fanbases in football.

Instead McTominay rose to become an icon, a figure far greater than most could have imagined possible across the years when English football largely dismissed him as a limited utility guy, useful to have around without being front-of-house material.

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Italy got the surging, unbridled McTominay 2.0. A dozen goals in 34 league games for Napoli, and the city that idolises Diego Maradona happily made headspace for a new darling. Barely a week went by without news emerging of some startling new McTominay goal or triumph.

McTominay with the Serie A trophy and league player of the season award after a superb campaign with Napoli GETTY

He is a Serie A champion, the most valuable player of the Italian league season, the recipient of player and goal of the month awards, and now he has a puncher’s chance in the Ballon d’Or. Perhaps this will be the year of Ousmane Dembélé as a driving force for Champions League winners Paris Saint-Germain. The Barcelona pair Lamine Yamal and Raphinha are heavyweight candidates too. The Premier League is represented by Virgil van Dijk, Alexis Mac Allister and Mohamed Salah from Liverpool, Arsenal pair Declan Rice and Viktor Gyokeres, Manchester City’s Erling Haaland and Chelsea’s Cole Palmer. England men Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham are on the list too. In terms of sheer impact and emergence over the season, only the 18-year-old Yamal surpasses McTominay. It’s about the company you keep.

Naples has fallen in love with McTominay ALAMY

It seems reasonable to wonder if he will ever stop growing. Over the course of a couple of years, about a decade ago, he spurted from a runtish 5ft 6in to a strapping 6ft 4in. It was the making of him as a footballer. At 28 he has grown again, in profile and celebrity this time. This news underlines his status as the biggest star in the Scotland team — sorry Andy Robertson, sorry John McGinn — and by one measure the biggest success story the country has produced in nearly four decades. OK, “produced” is doing some heavy lifting given he was born and raised in Lancaster and has never played a minute in Scottish club football, but his dad, Frank, from Helensburgh, shaped where his boy’s allegiances lie.

The old European Footballer of the Year award, as it was known, has been won only once by a Scottish player. After Denis Law’s great achievement in 1964, Jim Baxter, Jimmy Johnstone, Billy Bremner, Graeme Souness and Gordon Strachan all received subsequent nominations and Kenny Dalglish was runner-up in 1983. The last Scot to get on the shortlist was Ally McCoist in 1987. That’s why McTominay’s nomination is a big deal.

It’s amusing to think that when the first approach came from Napoli the depth of his connection to United — he has always been painstakingly respectful since his departure — meant there must have been a moment when he considered staying there. Maybe give it one more go, maybe see if Erik ten Hag could be convinced.

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Not every move works out, not everyone gets a reward for uprooting and throwing themselves headfirst into an entirely unfamiliar culture, but McTominay’s decision transformed his career and his life. Let’s just assume that as he sits with his feet up of an evening, looking out as the sun sets across the Bay of Naples, he isn’t losing too much sleep about whether he ought to have stuck around at Carrington. Of course, letting a Ballon d’Or contender go for just £25million and then having their worst season in years felt very Manchester United.

Hampton is on the women’s shortlist after her penalty-saving heroics helped England to win the Euros MICHAEL PROBST/AP

He is his own man now. Last month he rocked up at Wimbledon, cutting a dash in cream slacks, a navy blue blazer and sunglasses. He has always been image-conscious and no doubt he’ll cut an immaculate figure and look similarly Hollywood at the Ballon d’Or ceremony on September 22. Scots and Neapolitans will be together in willing him on. One lot, you can guess which, proudly shouting: “Gaun yersel, big man!”

Nominees for 2025 Ballon d’Or award

Men’s nominees Ousmane Dembélé (PSG & France) Gianluigi Donnarumma (PSG & Italy) Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid & England) Désiré Doué (PSG & France) Denzel Dumfries (Inter Milan & Netherlands) Serhou Guirassy (Borussia Dortmund & Guinea) Erling Haaland (Man City & Norway) Viktor Gyokeres (Arsenal & Sweden) Achraf Hakimi (PSG & Morocco) Harry Kane (Bayern Munich & England) Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (PSG & Georgia) Robert Lewandowski (Barcelona & Poland) Alexis Mac Allister (Liverpool & Argentina) Lautaro Martínez (Inter Milan & Argentina) Scott McTominay (Napoli & Scotland) Kylian Mbappé (Real Madrid & France) Nuno Mendes (PSG & Portugal) João Neves (PSG & Portugal) Pedri (Barcelona & Spain) Cole Palmer (Chelsea & England) Michael Olise (Bayern Munich & France) Raphinha (Barcelona & Brazil) Declan Rice (Arsenal & England) Fabián Ruiz (PSG & Spain) Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool & Netherlands) Vinícius Jr (Real Madrid & Brazil) Mohamed Salah (Liverpool & Egypt) Florian Wirtz (Liverpool & Germany) Vitinha (PSG & Portugal) Lamine Yamal (Barcelona & Spain)

Women’s nominees Lucy Bronze (Chelsea & England) Barbra Banda (Orlando Pride & Zambia) Aitana Bonmati (Barcelona & Spain) Sandy Baltimore (Chelsea & France) Mariona Caldentey (Arsenal & Spain) Klara Buhl (Bayern Munich & Germany) Sofia Cantore (Washington Spirit & Italy) Steph Catley (Arsenal & Australia) Melchie Dumornay (Lyon & Haiti) Temwa Chawinga (Kansas City Current & Malawi) Emily Fox (Arsenal & USA) Cristiana Girelli (Juventus & Italy) Esther González (Gotham & Spain) Caroline Graham Hansen (Barcelona & Norway) Patri Guijarro (Barcelona & Spain) Amanda Gutierres (Palmeiras & Brazil) Hannah Hampton (Chelsea & England) Pernille Harder (Bayern Munich & Denmark) Lindsey Heaps (Lyon & USA) Chloe Kelly (Arsenal & England) Marta (Orlando Pride & Brazil) Frida Leonhardsen Maanum (Arsenal & Norway) Ewa Pajor (Barcelona & Poland) Clara Mateo (Paris FC & France) Alessia Russo (Arsenal & England) Clàudia Pina (Barcelona & Spain) Alexia Putellas (Barcelona & Spain) Johanna Rytting Kaneryd (Chelsea & Sweden) Caroline Weir (Real Madrid & Scotland) Leah Williamson (Arsenal & England)

Men’s coach of the year nominees Antonio Conte (Napoli) Luis Enrique (Paris St-Germain) Hansi Flick (Barcelona) Enzo Maresca (Chelsea) Arne Slot (Liverpool)

Women’s coach of the year nominees Sonia Bompastor (Chelsea) Arthur Elias (Brazil) Justine Madugu (Nigeria) Renee Slegers (Arsenal) Sarina Wiegman (England)

Men’s club of the year nominees Barcelona (Spain) Botafogo (Brazil) Chelsea (England) Liverpool (England) Paris St-Germain (France)

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