DUNDEE UNITED youngster Archie Meekison trained with Barcelona as a kid, but credits a spell at Lowland League outfit Spartans as helping him the most as he celebrated his breakthrough season with a Scotland Under 21s call-up.
The 20-year-old made a big impact with Tam Courts' side this season as United finished in fourth place and qualified for Europe for the first time in ten years.
He could make his debut for Scotland Under 21s tomorrow in Sint-Truiden against the runaway Euro 2023 group leaders Belgium. Meekison was so keen to be involved, he cancelled a family holiday in Greece to join up with Scot Gemmill's group.
And he's revealed his unusual pathway to the progress he's made this term...via the Nou Camp and Ainslie Park.
He said: "I missed a family holiday to Greece. It was an easy decision. I wasn’t going to say to Scot Gemmill, ‘ach, I’d rather be lying on a sun bed!’
"It does add a bit to your mentality, knowing you have that bit extra in June when other players maybe have the feet up. As much as I love time relaxing, the way I played the last six games of the season I didn’t really feel my season was ending. I wanted to kick on.
"Barcelona was part of a training experience with AM Soccer under Austin MacPhee. When we were out there Barcelona had a camp and a couple of us went to a training session.
"You could see all the first team players arrive for training which was really cool. I saw everyone: David Villa, Lionel Messi, Sergio Busquets, Andres Iniesta, Xavi. They were all there. It was cool to be so close to them and see them on the training ground. It gave me a lot of inspiration and confidence.
“So I have been training with Barcelona. I wouldn’t say I was scouted by Barcelona but I’ll take any credit going!
"Spartans came at a standstill point in my career where I had just finished Under-18s and I was training with the first team but not quite making it into the squads. I had a discussion with the club and I went out to play every week and build up physically while playing mens’ football.
"So I went to Spartans and I played every week and scored a lot of goals and it was good for my confidence and to prove to myself that I could play in mens’ football. From there I came back and made my debut.
“It’s a really special club run by the community and charity. Everyone there was so nice to me, really respectful and gave me any help I needed. They were there to boost me and I still keep in contact with a lot of the people there and I can’t thank them enough.”
And Meekison will use this international experience with Scotland to help him for United's European campaign.
He said: "These games will stand me in good stead for the games in Europe with United, 100 per cent. Playing in different countries is not something I’ve done a lot of, especially at this level.
“It will definitely help me in terms of next season regardless of what tie we get, if it’s the other end of the world or closer to home."
