Scott Francis McTominay was born on December 8th, 1996, in Lancaster, England.
Attending a Manchester United youth academy in Preston from the age of five, he quickly stood out as a goal-scoring centre-forward. That’s who United signed five years later: a future Ruud Van Nistelrooy.
Only McTominay had other ideas, always wanting to play in midfield. Even from a very young age he loved to dominate games, to be right in the thick of the action.
The problem however was that the club were desperately short of strikers in his age-group. So the youngster got his head down, didn’t make a fuss. He continued to bang in the goals.
That’s how it stayed right through to youth level, his father Frank driving him to training sessions, McTominay gaining credit from his coaches for attributes that would later serve him well. He was brave, they said. He never shied. He never gave up.
Fast forward a couple of years though and the youngster was again in grave danger of being released by the club. Ironically, given he is now a strapping 6ft 3, the teenage McTominay was too slight of build, skinny and small.
A growth spurt resolved that particular issue but as well as being a solution it also had its setbacks as growing 14 inches in two years inevitably brought a succession of injuries.
Again there were question marks concerning his future and this time it took former player and emerging youth coach Nicky Butt to step in and make a case for him. Butt cited the player’s bravery first and foremost.
Fast forward once more to the present day. McTominay has just won a Scudetto with Napoli, an outstanding debut season on the Peninsula leading to all manner of individual plaudits. He was voted Serie A’s most valuable player. He was selected into Serie A’s Team of the Season.
Additionally, the 28-year-old is an integral part of Scotland’s national side, an idol of the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona and Hampden Park alike.
His bank balance meanwhile contains more noughts than can be spent in a lifetime. He never gave up.
How much is Scott McTominay worth?
Though he is not one for promoting products and taking advantage of commercial opportunities, it is notable that his image rights company Scott McTominay Ltd showed a healthy balance of £4,745,160 in their latest accounts.
Excelling in Italy, and cementing his status as a hero for Scotland, has broadened his appeal and made him a much more marketable figure.
Since moving abroad the self-confessed ‘foodie’ has openly praised Italian cuisine so what’s the betting we see him on television flogging tinned tomatoes sometime soon. In the meantime his wealth is estimated to top £10m.
Manchester United
McTominay’s full debut arrived on the final day of the 2016/17 season, a 2-0 home victory over Crystal Palace.
It was Jose Mourinho who handed him the opportunity – the ‘Special One’ referring to the player affectionately as ‘The Kid’ throughout his short tenure – but though he is an important figure in McTominay’s story, he also set in motion a long-running arc of frustration for the midfielder, namely being stationed as a number six, charged with protecting the defence.
“When I got into the first team, I was quite misprofiled in where I was playing,” he later stated, when interviewed by The Athletic.
Being deployed in a position that didn’t play to his attacking strengths was regrettably a common theme throughout McTominay’s seven years as a first-teamer, no matter which manager was in the hot-seat.
And there was certainly lots of different managers, four all told, not including caretakers, as first Mourinho tried and failed to revive United’s glory days, followed by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Ralf Rangnick, the Erik Ten Hag.
All, Ten Hag aside, highly rated the player, the Dutchman offering out public compliments only sparingly.
When viewed as a whole, there were a good deal of positives regarding McTominay’s time at Old Trafford.
He made 178 appearances and won both domestic cups. But this was generally a period of struggle, with the club no longer routine favourites in the football betting for silverware or even to reach top four.
It feels unfair but McTominay was too often – and too closely – associated with those seasons of underachievement.
Napoli
All of that changed – and quite dramatically – when the midfielder agreed to a £25.7m switch to the continent in the summer of 2024, joining a Napoli side that had just unsuccessfully defended their league title and were in need of a shake-up.
McTominay was an established Premier League star so capturing him was quite a coup for Gli Azzurri. Yet the reaction from the British public, by and large, was telling, surprised that another elite club would covet him.
The player wasted no time in demonstrating why, bossing Serie A midfields with authority. Moreover, granted more freedom to get forward, he racked up his best numbers to date, scoring 12 goals and assisting six times.
Proving an instant success in Italy, and becoming an integral part of Napoli’s title triumph, McTominay has been afforded a gratifying nickname by the Naples faithful. ‘McFratm’ when translated suggests he is their brother.
Scotland
Eligible to play for Scotland via his father’s heritage, McTominay took a while to establish himself as a first team regular, missing games through injury and even deployed as a centre-back at Euro 2020.
In recent seasons though he has become arguably their most important player, scoring goals and adding genuine quality to their centre-circle.
Now a veteran of two major tournaments and boasting 61 caps to date, a personal highlight came during Scotland’s Euro 2024 qualifying campaign when he scored twice against Cyprus, following that up with another brace vs Spain.
McTominay credits head coach Steve Clarke for turning his international fortunes around, giving him more responsibility and trusting him to deliver on that.
Salary
Speaking of fortunes, McTominay amassed considerable wealth during his seven years as a full professional in Manchester, his £78,000 weekly wage across his final season a vast increase on the £620-a-week he initially signed on for.
Since joining Napoli, the player has ceded to a lower salary, bringing in £2.8m a year in Italy compared to the £4m a year he enjoyed in England.
*Credit for the main photo belongs to Alamy*
