Almost every Scottish football fan now knows the name Lawrence Shankland after his success at Ayr and Dundee United earned him a Scotland shirt.

The 25-year-old striker has once again been called up to Steve Clarke’s Scotland squad, having previously won two caps and scored one goal.

Add to that impressive resumé a Scottish Championship title, a Scottish League One title, a PFA Scotland’s Players’ Player of the Year for League One in the 2017/18 season award, and a SPFL Top Goalscorer in 2019/20 award – it’s not a bad trophy room in the Shankland household.

He is now in the Scottish Premiership for the second time in his career, this time with United where he wants to prove he can compete at the highest level.

At the weekend, whilst recovering from injury, Shankland discussed the side to his career that many people aren’t aware of – his youth career – on the ‘Bishy PE podcast’. This podcast episode was hosted by two teachers in the PE department and an S6 student of Bishopbriggs Academy. 

Lawrence was born in August 1995, in Glasgow, and mentioned his first footballing experience: “I started at Baillieston Juniors. I only played there for a few months and then the Hearts scout was at one of my games so I ended up going and training with them for about six months to a year.

“Then I ended up going through the Academy when I was turning eight until I was 12/13.”

He spoke about his time training with Rangers, as he was playing games at the weekend with Queen’s Park which he mentioned was “like a loan deal”.

After a few months of being with both teams, he was released by Rangers and stuck with the Spiders until he made the first team in 2012. During this period he also represented his country, appearing for the Scottish Schools FA’s squad in the Centenary Shield.

Speaking about school he said: “I enjoyed times of it… You don’t realise until you were older how good it was, you probably wish you could go back and do things a bit different but it was an enjoyable time for me.”

He mentioned that he stayed on until fifth year and then left around the same time he made his Queens Park first-team debut. He thanked a PE teacher at his high school for giving him football advice and says he still keeps in touch with him, as well as other teachers, up to this day. 

At the end of his first season playing part-time with Queen’s Park and working part-time at a local factory, he decided he “wanted to play football full-time at the end of that season as there was a bit of interest”.

After leaving Queen’s Park he went on to sign for Aberdeen in 2013, where he was sent out on loan to several Scottish clubs, he only spent 18 months in Aberdeen and the rest of the time he was out on loan, getting experience and game time. 

When his time with Aberdeen came to an end, Shankland admitted that he “found himself out of the game for a while”. The time between Aberdeen and Ayr United was around three months but he admitted later on that this was one of the toughest points in his career.

He felt that he repaid Ayr United after they “took a chance” on him by leading them to win League 1, getting promoted to the Championship and then finishing in a playoff spot in the following year. Over his two-year spell with Ayr, Shankland scored 50 goals in 61 appearances. 

Towards the end of the interview, he was questioned about the keys to success in a team. “Having quality in your squad and believing in what you’re trying to do,” he said, “you just have to remember what the focus is and what you’re aiming for.”

Finally, he advised young footballers trying to make it, adding: “Hard work and attitude is half of the battle.

“If you have quality and your talent is there then that will eventually come through and you’ll be able to show what levels you can get to but the biggest thing for me was just knuckling down and working hard.

“You just need to commit to what you want to do if you want to be successful and do everything you can to make yourself better. If people are willing to give you advice they’re always giving you that to make you better.”

You can view the entire podcast episode on YouTube using the link below: https://youtu.be/rRbGe09Q-K8

Almost every Scottish football fan now knows the name Lawrence Shankland after his success at Ayr and Dundee United earned him a Scotland shirt.

The 25-year-old striker has once again been called up to Steve Clarke's Scotland squad, having previously won two caps and scored one goal.

Add to that impressive resumé a Scottish Championship title, a Scottish League One title, a PFA Scotland’s Players’ Player of the Year for League One in the 2017/18 season award, and a SPFL Top Goalscorer in 2019/20 award – it's not a bad trophy room in the Shankland household.

He is now in the Scottish Premiership for the second time in his career, this time with United where he wants to prove he can compete at the highest level.

At the weekend, whilst recovering from injury, Shankland discussed the side to his career that many people aren’t aware of – his youth career – on the 'Bishy PE podcast'. This podcast episode was hosted by two teachers in the PE department and an S6 student of Bishopbriggs Academy. 

Lawrence was born in August 1995, in Glasgow, and mentioned his first footballing experience: “I started at Baillieston Juniors. I only played there for a few months and then the Hearts scout was at one of my games so I ended up going and training with them for about six months to a year.

"Then I ended up going through the Academy when I was turning eight until I was 12/13."

He spoke about his time training with Rangers, as he was playing games at the weekend with Queen's Park which he mentioned was “like a loan deal”.

After a few months of being with both teams, he was released by Rangers and stuck with the Spiders until he made the first team in 2012. During this period he also represented his country, appearing for the Scottish Schools FA's squad in the Centenary Shield.

Speaking about school he said: “I enjoyed times of it… You don’t realise until you were older how good it was, you probably wish you could go back and do things a bit different but it was an enjoyable time for me."

He mentioned that he stayed on until fifth year and then left around the same time he made his Queens Park first-team debut. He thanked a PE teacher at his high school for giving him football advice and says he still keeps in touch with him, as well as other teachers, up to this day. 

At the end of his first season playing part-time with Queen's Park and working part-time at a local factory, he decided he “wanted to play football full-time at the end of that season as there was a bit of interest”.

After leaving Queen's Park he went on to sign for Aberdeen in 2013, where he was sent out on loan to several Scottish clubs, he only spent 18 months in Aberdeen and the rest of the time he was out on loan, getting experience and game time. 

When his time with Aberdeen came to an end, Shankland admitted that he “found himself out of the game for a while”. The time between Aberdeen and Ayr United was around three months but he admitted later on that this was one of the toughest points in his career.

He felt that he repaid Ayr United after they “took a chance” on him by leading them to win League 1, getting promoted to the Championship and then finishing in a playoff spot in the following year. Over his two-year spell with Ayr, Shankland scored 50 goals in 61 appearances. 

Towards the end of the interview, he was questioned about the keys to success in a team. “Having quality in your squad and believing in what you’re trying to do," he said, "you just have to remember what the focus is and what you’re aiming for."

Finally, he advised young footballers trying to make it, adding: “Hard work and attitude is half of the battle.

"If you have quality and your talent is there then that will eventually come through and you’ll be able to show what levels you can get to but the biggest thing for me was just knuckling down and working hard.

"You just need to commit to what you want to do if you want to be successful and do everything you can to make yourself better. If people are willing to give you advice they’re always giving you that to make you better.”

You can view the entire podcast episode on YouTube using the link below: https://youtu.be/rRbGe09Q-K8