Scott McKenna has entered Scotland’s international roll of honour after making his 50th international appearance in a 4-1 friendly win over Curacao at Hampden.
The milestone places McKenna among nine Steve Clarke players now in the Roll of Honour, underlining the depth of experience available to the Scotland boss heading into the World Cup.
McKenna reflected on how dramatically the squad has changed since a formative trip to the Americas under Alex McLeish in 2018.
“When we went to Peru and Mexico, we were the team playing in the send-off games for other sides,” McKenna said, recalling those early days in the national setup.
“Playing Mexico, I think between the starting XI we had fewer than 30 caps, whereas now you would struggle to find anyone in our starting XI with fewer than 30 caps.”
McKenna, who made his debut against Costa Rica before that same summer trip, credits Clarke’s loyalty and consistency for transforming the group’s mentality and cohesion.
“The gaffer has obviously been very loyal to us and tried to build that squad feeling,” McKenna said, pointing to the togetherness that has developed across the squad over several years.
The Dinamo Zagreb defender also highlighted a specific qualifying match against Belarus as evidence of how far the team has come in terms of grinding out results under pressure.
“We were terrible against Belarus at home and it was the sort of game where in the past we might not have won,” he admitted, before noting the squad managed to push through for a vital victory.
McKenna believes Scotland can draw significant lessons from Croatia, his adopted homeland, when it comes to competing at major tournaments and progressing deep into knockout stages.
Croatia have qualified for the last seven World Cups and Euros, consistently threatening the latter stages, and McKenna sees their approach as a genuine blueprint for sustained international success.
“They’ve had a lot of success in going deep in tournaments,” McKenna said, adding that the expectation within Croatian football is now to reach semi-finals and finals as a matter of course.
He pointed to Dinamo Zagreb’s academy system as a particular area of interest, noting the club’s remarkable ability to produce a steady conveyor belt of top-level talent year after year.
“There’s no club in Scotland that’s produced anything like that and I think population wise we’re much the same, so maybe it’s a culture thing as well,” McKenna observed.
He expressed a desire to visit Dinamo’s academy facilities in the coming years to better understand the processes behind their consistent production of quality players for the national team.
McKenna arrives at the World Cup on a personal high, having secured a league and cup double with Dinamo Zagreb after a strong second half of the club season.
“Up until Christmas it was quite tight, but after that we hit a rich vein of form and ended up winning the league quite comfortably, as well as the cup,” he said proudly.
The defender’s career has taken him from Aberdeen to Nottingham Forest, then to stints at Copenhagen on loan and Spanish side Las Palmas, before his move to Zagreb last year.
He credited his time abroad with broadening his football education, noting that adapting to different tempos, nationalities, and coaching philosophies has made him a more rounded player.
“It’s definitely sink or swim, but you’ve just got to try to embrace the culture as best you can and try to do whatever the coach is asking you,” McKenna concluded, with his focus now firmly set on the World Cup.
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