The song followed him from Birmingham to Boston. After Aston Villa won the Europa League, manager Unai Emery led the crowd in a chorus of “Super John McGinn.” A few weeks later, outside Faneuil Hall, the Tartan Army sang it better. And then McGinn made them sing again.
He scored Scotland’s winner against Haiti at the World Cup. That’s the first goal for Scotland in a World Cup win since 1990, unless you count Tom Boyd’s own goal in 1998. So yeah, it was a big deal. Scottish fans hit record noise levels at Gillette Stadium that night. When they face Morocco on Friday, McGinn is the guy most likely to make Massachusetts deaf again.
This is John McGinn’s summer
He already has three historic achievements this season. He captained Villa to a top-four Premier League finish. His goal against Liverpool clinched Champions League qualification. Then he scored twice in the Europa League semifinal against Nottingham Forest. And he lifted Villa’s first European trophy in 44 years after beating Freiburg. Only Dennis Mortimer had done that before him.
Now he’s doing it for Scotland. McGinn and captain Andy Robertson are the double act that has carried Steve Clarke’s team. Robertson was released by Celtic as a teenager. McGinn doesn’t look like a typical footballer. He’s got the most famous backside in the sport, and he once told Villa his favorite meal was “chips” for a World Food Day video. At Euro 2024 he tried Bavarian country dancing with locals at Scotland’s training base. That didn’t go great. Neither did his form on the pitch.
But this World Cup is different. His goal against Haiti wasn’t pretty — “I scuffed it a wee bit,” he admitted — but it counts. That’s 21 goals for Scotland, more than anyone in the last 70 years except Kenny Dalglish and Denis Law. Which says something about Scotland’s striker problem. McGinn has been filling that gap, and now Scott McTominay has helped carry the load.
McGinn joined Villa for $2.5 million when they were a Championship club. That’s one of the best bargains of the decade. He’s gotten better as the team has risen. At 32, he’s still fit enough to train in 45-degree heat in Arizona. This is probably his only World Cup — Scotland had missed the previous six tournaments. He’s already left his mark.
He’s probably the only guy nicknamed “Meatball” to score the winner in a World Cup match. Between the odd look, the sense of humor, and the knack for big goals, Super John McGinn has become a distinctly Scottish kind of superhero.
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