Andy Robertson is two games from becoming Scotland’s most capped men’s player, and the Tottenham left-back says the night he draws level with Kenny Dalglish will be about the King, not about him.
A 102nd cap against North Macedonia at Hampden on Friday (7.45pm UK) would put him level with Dalglish’s record, a mark that has stood for 40 years. If all goes to plan, he takes it outright in St Gallen against Switzerland on Monday.
Speaking to BBC Sport at Queen’s Park, in the shadow of Hampden, Andy Robertson admitted the thought of it gives him “goosebumps”. He was just as clear about who the occasion belongs to.
“There’s one throne and Kenny Dalglish should be sat on it”
Robertson said: “There are normal seats but there’s one throne and Kenny Dalglish should be sat on it. Friday night’s not about me. Friday night’s about the greatest player of all time in our country, and for me, that will always be Kenny.”
He added: “He’s had this record for so long. He deserves it. If he played in a different era, he would probably have played a number of games that wouldn’t have been able to be caught.”
And there was a wider point about how Scotland treats its greats. “Sometimes, not as a criticism, as a country we’re maybe not good at recognising how good people we’ve got are. For me, he’s the best player to ever play with Scotland and arguably Britain. We have to appreciate that man because I certainly do, my family certainly do and, I think on Friday, I’ll have him at the front of my mind, the back of my mind and I’m not really bothered about myself.”
The night Dalglish “cured” his grandad’s hearing
The Dalglish link runs through the Robertson family. He recalled grabbing Dalglish after Liverpool beat Barcelona 4-0 in May 2019 to reach his second Champions League final, and asking him to say hello to his grandad and uncle.
“Bear in mind his grandson’s just qualified for another Champions League final and he basically barged me out of the way and shook Kenny’s hand,” Robertson said. “My grandad had hearing aids. He couldn’t really hear much of us but he heard everything Kenny said, so it did open a lot of questions in the family as to how bad the ear problem was with my grandad. He’s no longer with us but to see how happy he was… Kenny was his hero.”
He also said his dad, who has met plenty of football people through him, has only ever been starstruck by one: Dalglish.
From a 19-year-old in Warsaw to Scotland’s record holder
Robertson’s first cap came off the bench in Warsaw on 5 March 2014, when he was 19 and still at Dundee United. He remembers then Scotland manager Gordon Strachan telling him to play the way he did for his club and not play safe, and his first touch was a 30 or 40-yard run forward.
“Nervous, excited, living the dream, not knowing what road I was on,” he said of that day. Since then he has won two Premier League titles, two League Cups, an FA Cup, a Champions League, a Super Cup and a Club World Cup, and he has captained the Scotland men’s team more often than anyone.
The surprise is how little of that has turned into swagger. “I’ve never actually been confident,” he said. “I’ve always doubted myself and that’s always got the best out of me. I’ve always tried to prove people wrong and prove myself wrong. The one thing I didn’t do was look too far ahead.”
Scotland need a win, not just a milestone
Robertson was not treating Friday as a nostalgia trip. He called Scotland’s last outing against Slovenia “unacceptable” and said the players had been a yard off it in every area, adding: “We didn’t give our fans anything to shout about.”
He is one of several Spurs players on duty this month, as our guide to where Tottenham’s internationals play this break sets out, alongside Dejan Kulusevski, who has opened up about his knee in the Sweden camp.
What the Andy Robertson Scotland record means for Spurs
For Tottenham, the only worry is the obvious one: two games in four days, the second of them away in Switzerland, with Spurs already missing players through injury. The record needs him to play both, and Spurs will want him back in one piece.
But there’s something to enjoy here too. The player who is about to pass Dalglish is the same one who speaks about the young players in the Scotland squad, saying he loves “their energy” and that “we all have a duty” to protect 15, 16 and 17-year-olds coming through. That’s the kind of voice De Zerbi’s dressing room can use, and it’s a good week to be reminded of it.
