Scotland hero Colin Hendry picks Auld Enemy as likely Euros winners

Keith’s most famous footballing son believes the Auld Enemy are best placed to win the Euros this summer.

Those were the thoughts of former Scotland captain Colin Hendry on Friday as he returned to his home town to meet Keith Primary School pupils and fans at SPAR for a pre-tournament celebration.

Hendry, who captained Scotland at the World Cup in 1998, said there is a real “feelgood factor” around the national team but he had an ominous message for the Tartan Army.

“I’m not going to lie, the front six that England have is really something else,” he said.

“I don’t see that with any of the other teams.

“Listen, if it does happen, my life will be hell but if I’m being realistic then I think they will go far which is unfortunate for me, a Scotsman living in England.”

Hendry famously won the English Premier League with Blackburn Rovers in 1995 in a team that also featured Alan Shearer.

He also won the Scottish Premier League, Scottish Cup and Scottish League Cup during a treble winning season at Rangers in 1999.

But he says captaining Scotland at a major tournament was one of the proudest moments of his career and he thinks this year’s team has many similarities to the one he led out 26 years ago.

“I’ve got to the point now where some of the kids are saying “my grandad played with you” and it’s mad when I think about it,” he said.

“But I think this team has a lot of similarities with our own even if that was 26 or so years ago.

“This team has players that are winning things and doing well.

“We’ve got John McGinn who’s just qualified for the Champions League with Aston Villa, we’ve got Scott McTominay who has won the FA Cup with Man Utd and of course we’ve got Andy Robertson who has won it all with Liverpool.

“That has a lot of similarities with the team I played in between 1996 and 1998.

“We had myself having won the league with Blackburn, Paul Lambert won the Champions League with Dortmund and we had guys like Gary McAllister and John Collins as well.

“To captain your country at international level, that really is the pinnacle.

“It’s going to be tough but the opening game against the hosts is going to be brilliant.”

Scotland will kick off their campaign against Germany in Munich on Friday.

Games against Switzerland and Hungary will follow on June 19 and June 23 respectively.

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