Scotland Boss Explains Decision To Hand Northampton Forward His First International Call-Up

Scotland head coach Steve Clarke has explained his reasoning for handing a first senior call-up to former Northampton forward Kieron Bowie.

The 22-year-old made his breakthrough whilst on loan at Sixfields, joining the club in 2022 and enjoying two successful years at the club, before making the permanent switch to Hibernian last summer, where he’s scored six goals in 22 games.

Four years after his debut for the Under-21s, confirmation of Bowie’s first ever senior international call-up came on Monday and he will now be hoping to make his debut in one of Scotland’s two friendlies next month, either against Iceland at Hampden (June 6th) or away at Liechtenstein (June 9th).

“Kieron’s had a good season,” said Clarke. “He obviously had an injury at the start of the season but he’s a player I’ve always had my eye on, especially in the Under-21s. Whenever I’ve watched him he’s always stood out.

“He’s big, he’s physical and he’s strong and there are a lot of good attributes to his game. Going into the summer, you have people like Lawrence Shankland and Kevin Lisbie but I know what they can bring to the squad and I wanted to have a look at something a bit different.

“We need to expand the pool of players we have available to us and I keep talking about having a bigger group that we can select from and these games are a chance to have a look at one or two and Kieron’s in that.”

Scotland Boss Explains Decision To Hand Northampton Forward His First International Call-Up