Scott McTominay: How Scotland's bicycle kick hero went from Steve Clarke's centre-back to national team poster boy heading to the World Cup

Serie A champion with Napoli. Ballon d'Or nominee. Scott McTominay has overseen a pretty sensational last 12 months. But sending his country to a first World Cup in over a quarter of a century must surely top the lot.

Such was the drama in the final ten minutes of the Hampden Park classic that McTominay's stunning bicycle kick was nearly forgotten. It may not even go down as the best goal of the night. But it was one that set the tone for a night of mayhem - and glory.

We've seen bicycle kicks like that before. It is comparable to Gareth Bale's one in the Champions League final against Liverpool in 2018, or Jude Bellingham's for England against Slovakia at last year's Euros.

Both those players were Real Madrid stars when they scored those goals. That is what McTominay is to his nation - a Scottish Galactico.

On a passion-fuelled night in Glasgow, Scotland needed something to calm them down. A goal was the answer to that - only the nature of it lifted the roof off the stadium.

Even still, McTominay turned to celebrate and issued calm to those around him. "I've got this," he appeared to say. An experienced head, who had the calming presence to realise there was a long way to go, perhaps knowing what would come later in the game.

That is an aura that carries a team through adversity - a team that can lose to Greece and stay alive via a lucky favour from Belarus, then a few days later beat a recognised international side in Denmark. A team that can lose their centre-back in the pre-match warm-up, then their star winger to an early injury, and still come through.

A team that can field a 42-year-old goalkeeper in goal, but still have a real attacking force to be reckoned with to cancel it out.

Scotland have a captain in Andy Robertson who has won it all. They have another cult hero in John McGinn. But there is no doubt who their poster boy is now.

The beauty of McTominay's evolution is that he has grown within this Scotland team. His national team's advancement has coincided with his advancement up the pitch as a player.

It is now simply unthinkable that in Scotland's first tournament for 23 years, the 2020 European Championships - the now-major goal threat for club and country played most of the campaign as a centre-back.

Looking back at that tournament four years ago, Scotland did not quite belong on that stage - in the same way McTominay did not belong in defence.

At Euro 2024, McTominay was more of a goal threat, but he was not world-class. And neither were Scotland, cue another early exit.

But now Scotland have earned their spot on the biggest stage of them all in the World Cup, at a time when their talisman is at his greatest level. Both McTominay and his national team have realised their full potential.

McTominay's positional diversity throughout his career has created the notion that he was misunderstood for a long time.

At Manchester United, he was deemed the water carrier, a sitting midfielder - someone who will do the opposite side of the game to snatch the headlines in the way he has done for Napoli and Scotland recently.

Some will point to McTominay's move to Napoli last season as the big turning point of the Scot's story. After all, he is another former United player who has kicked on massively since leaving Old Trafford.

But there is another less-talked-about turning point - and it is only apt that Scotland boss Steve Clarke was the person behind it.

At the start of 2023, a full 18 months before he left United, McTominay was at a low point in his career. Barely starting games for his club in Erik ten Hag's first full season in charge, the midfielder held a meeting with Clarke in the March international break.

"The manager and I sat down and he said that I didn't look happy, that I didn't look like I was smiling about the place. I thought: 'Maybe he's right.'" McTominay told reporters last year.

"I went and spoke to my mum, my dad, my girlfriend at the time and they all pretty much said the same thing. Sometimes, you just need to enjoy football and play with a smile on your face and take it easy.

"Ever since that, to be fair, I've just thought: "Let's go for it". It was a weight lifted off my shoulders."

The 2022-23 campaign was McTominay's lowest in terms of minutes played since he became a regular first-team player at United. Injuries had a minor role in that campaign, but out of his 39 United appearances that season, just 16 were starts. He was not trusted by his club.

"I don't like it whenever I'm not playing. It hurts me whenever I'm not playing," said McTominay about that time. "So, I'm obviously going to be upset whenever I come into camp.

"I'm running into the training ground, I'm not sulking, but I'm wanting to play. It's your livelihood, you want to be a part of it as much as possible.

"After that conversation, obviously things click a little bit and you just think: 'Do you know what, you've got one career, you might as well go for it while you're here.'"

And go for it he has. In his first game after that Clarke conversation, he scored twice in a Euro 2024 qualifier against Cyprus. Three days later, he got another double on a famous Hampden night against Spain. Before he knew it, he had six goals in five matches for Scotland and their Euros ticket was secured.

That form helped to get his United place back, featuring a lot more in attacking areas during Ten Hag's second season. Then came his move to Napoli, which gave him even more consistent minutes as the attacking midfielder, escaping the shadow that the presence of Bruno Fernandes and, before that, Paul Pogba cast over him at United.

Now Scotland have their saviour, one completely ready to take them to the biggest of major tournaments.

And given how far he has come in the space of 12 to 18 months, you could back more McTominay masterclasses at the World Cup.