For Harry Souttar, the past 12 months have been punctuated by dizzying highs and personal lows. There was the World Cup, at which he excelled for Australia en route to the last 16, but only after the frustration of a year on the sidelines because of an anterior cruciate ligament injury. A fortnight ago he made his Premier League debut after a £15m move to Leicester from Stoke, whom he joined from Dundee United in 2016 as a 17-year-old. Last August came the crushing loss of his eldest brother, Aaron, who died at the age of 42 from motor neurone disease.
Souttar has since got a tattoo of Aaron, who was captain of his local golf club, Brechin, playing at St Andrews his brother’s favourite course, on his left forearm. “Before one of the games at the World Cup, the boss [Graham Arnold] did a great speech about: ‘Who you are doing it for? Who is in the stand watching, who is watching back home? Who is that one person you’re doing it for?’” Souttar says. “It was pretty simple for me. It’s nice to always have him with me.
“Before all the games at the World Cup my dad would give me a text and just say: ‘He would be wanting three points tonight or a win tonight.’ Even before the Tottenham game last weekend he gave me a little text just to say: ‘He’ll be wanting a win on your home debut.’”
Rewind three years and Souttar was lining up in League One for Fleetwood, on loan from Stoke, but two months ago the 6ft 6in centre-back was an important pillar of the Australia side that almost took Argentina, the eventual World Cup winners, to extra time. Souttar’s involvement – he played every minute for the Socceroos in Qatar – was all the more staggering given he arrived at the tournament on the back of playing just 101 minutes in 12 months because of a knee injury, sustained against Saudi Arabia. Desperate to play a part in Australia’s decisive playoff qualifier against Peru last summer, he resorted to an unorthodox role. “I’m pals with the kit man, Dom, and I was just like: ‘What can I do to help?’ He was like: ‘You can come to the stadium early with me to help set up the kit.’”
Souttar, 24, is a self-deprecating character. When he signed for Leicester he described himself as a “head on a stick” and reflecting on his time at Fleetwood under Joey Barton, who twice signed him on loan, he refers to himself as “a big lanky centre-half”. Brendan Rodgers spotted much more than that, however, and discussed Souttar’s talents, which the Leicester manager was aware of from his time in charge of Celtic, after bumping into René Meulensteen while Australia’s assistant manager was walking his dog in Cheshire last year.
“I’ve always wanted to be a Premier League player and three or four years ago I knew I was miles off it,” Souttar says. “I had to go out on loan numerous times, twice to Fleetwood and once to Ross County, even to get into the Stoke team. A lot of British players have come through the pathways and the EFL is a great system for loan players.”
Souttar is at ease at Leicester’s sprawling Seagrave training ground talking about everything from duelling with Kylian Mbappé and Lionel Messi in Qatar to his love for Lord of the Rings – his figurines, he says, are at his mum’s house – and how he used to go weak at the knees for a certain type of fast food. “I got the move and had a text from one of my pals saying: ‘No more chicken goujons for you,’” he says, smiling. “You just won’t get away with it any more, especially at this level because everyone’s an athlete, while being an amazing footballer at the same time. There’s no cutting corners, if you want to make it at the very top of the game you have to live your life right. With the facilities here, there’s no excuse.”
Souttar, who grew up in Aberdeenshire, represented Scotland at under-17 and under-19 level but was overlooked at under-21 and senior level. He made his Australia debut in October 2019, while on loan at Fleetwood, and there have been a few memorable trips since, none more so than training alongside giant bullfrogs on the eve of a World Cup qualifier in Vietnam in September 2021. “The size of that iPad,” he says of them.
His sweeping last-ditch slide tackle on Taha Yassine Khenissi at the World Cup, to help preserve a group-stage victory over Tunisia and give Australia liftoff at the tournament went viral, cementing his status as a cult hero. “I don’t want to sound like Roy Keane here but it’s a defender’s job to stop the ball going in the net,” he says. Keane would doubtless approve of Souttar’s attitude to swapping shirts, too. Souttar’s mother, Heather, through whom he qualifies to play for Australia, told him to keep all of his tops.
On Sunday Souttar and Leicester face Manchester United hoping to secure a third successive victory. The stage of Old Trafford is unlikely to faze Souttar, for whom the seminal moments keep on coming.
“With the pressure of those games, it helped me prepare for it a little better and knowing what was to come,” he says of the World Cup. “I’ve only played two games – anyone can play well for two games – it’s about doing it over a consistent period of time. I am not getting carried away with myself, I know that you can get praise one minute and stick the next.”
