St Johnstone have signed Ali McCann’s youngest brother, Scott.
Like the double cup-winning hero, who was sold to Preston North End last summer for a fee that could rise to a club record, Scott has been playing his youth football with renowned boys’ club, Hutchison Vale in Edinburgh.
A centre-back, the 15-year-old will go into Saints’ under-16 squad.
The youngest of four boys, Scott is on track to complete the set of professional athletes in the McCann family.
Oldest of the quartet, Ross, is a top rugby sevens player.
He represented Britain at the last Olympics and was recently named in Scotland’s Commonwealth Games squad.
The other three have gone down the football route, with Lewis getting his season off to a fast start at Dunfermline under James McPake.
Like Ali, he has pledged his international allegiance to Northern Ireland.
In 2020, dad Ian spoke to The Courier about the sporting family.
McCann family bond
He said: “All of the boys are close. Ali and Lewis in particular, because there’s only two years between them and they’re both footballers.
“And they’ve been away quite a lot with Northern Ireland under-21s.
“Ross has moved out. He was travelling the world with Scotland before Covid.
“He moved back with us during lockdown earlier in the year. He worked out in the garden, Ali and Lewis were able to do some ball work together and Scott got a bit of extra coaching!
“The 5k runs started to become competitive, as you can imagine.
“’What time did you do?……Oh, OK. I was faster’. That sort of thing. I have to say Lewis was faster but he’s got the advantage of being 6ft 5in with a very long stride!”
He added: “My wife and I both come from pretty sporty families.
“Jo’s late father, Don Fisher, was at Charlton Athletic reserves. He played as a goalkeeper and then a winger. He was still playing football until his mid-60s.
“He passed away [in 2018] in his 80s, and he was still playing tennis at that point.
“Jo’s mum was a tennis player and Jo was sporty herself.
“I was a rugby player who played some football. I played rugby like a footballer and football like a rugby player!
“My dad was more of a footballer and played for Northern Ireland schoolboys.
“He played at Easter Road in 1958 for Northern Ireland against Scotland. It was a 1-1 draw.”
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