A first call-up at 27
James Penrice thought it might be over at 23. Partick Thistle had dropped into League One, he was part-time, and Covid arrived. “I was looking at courses and stuff like that and trying to think about life after football,” the defender told Sky Sports News. On Tuesday he spoke about it as a Scotland squad member for the first time, after Sebastien Pocognoli included him for the November Nations League double-header.
Penrice calls his route a “slow rise”. It went through loan spells at East Fife and Livingston, a permanent move to Livingston, then Hearts, where he played well enough to earn a £2m transfer to AEK Athens. He played 32 times in Greece as AEK won another national title.
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The Rangers chapter
He came back to Scotland on loan from AEK, with an option to buy, and scored on his Rangers debut one day after signing. Penrice says the move was partly about pushing for international recognition. “It’s been unbelievable since I came back,” he said.
Rangers manager Derek McInnes is already thinking beyond the loan. “I want him, the club wants him and James wants to be here,” McInnes said, though he admitted he does not yet know how or when a deal could be agreed. He described Penrice as a player who “plays with hunger”.
What comes next for Scotland
Penrice will be one of the older newcomers in the group, and he says that is the point of his story. He believes players who reach 21 or 22 without a breakthrough should not write themselves off. Scotland host North Macedonia on November 13 at 7.45pm, then travel to Switzerland on November 16 for the last Nations League match of the window. Scott McTominay is back in the squad, which also includes Andy Robertson, Kieran Tierney and Billy Gilmour.
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