Aaron Hickey is not afraid of seeking a challenge with the Brentford defender pioneering the way for Scots to test themselves abroad.
Hickey, 20, left Hearts for Bologna in September 2020 and hasn't looked back. He went on to make almost 50 appearances for the Italian Serie A side before a string of eye-catching performances earned him a £14million move to the English Premier League last summer.
Lewis Ferguson, Jack Hendry, Liam Henderson and Josh Doig have all made similar switches to the continent in recent years, and Hickey believes more youngsters should follow in their footsteps by casting their net wider than the Scottish Premiership in order to maximise opportunities. He told The Herald: “It [Italy] helped me massively. I became more flexible, trying other things out in Italy managed to help me do that.
“I was playing a different way to what I did at Hearts, adding different things to my game. Once you add things you can only then try to improve, I’m trying to do that here at Brentford.
“More people are starting to go abroad. I don’t know, maybe they’ve seen me or Liam Henderson, we were sort of the first two. It’s really nice, and good to see. You’ve got Lewis Ferguson and Josh Doig in Serie A, Jack Hendry is playing abroad and they’re all doing well. I feel like players could do more of that.”
Hickey had interest from English giants Arsenal among others before opting to join Brentford and the Scotland left-back reckons it was the best decision he could’ve made because he knew the importance of regular game-time. He has since been a pivotal part of Thomas Frank’s side, in between a three month injury lay-off.
“What they were saying interested me the most,” Hickey explained. “I had a Zoom call with the manager before I signed and he told me what his plans were for me. The fact that it was in London, and it being such a nice area, helped me make the decision.
“I’m still young and I want to progress and play football. At my age, the most important thing for me is to get as much game-time as I can.
“I feel like Brentford and Bologna were the best opportunities for me to get that. I’m not saying that I would [definitely] have got the game-time but those were the best chances to get it.”
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