Luis Binks has taken an unconventional route to the Scotland squad, and the 25-year-old Brondby centre-half and captain is now pushing for a debut in Saturday’s Nations League opener against Slovenia in Ljubljana. He is one of eight uncapped players in Sebastien Pocognoli’s first Scotland squad, with a place in the heart of defence having opened up since Grant Hanley and John Souttar were jettisoned after the Belgian replaced Steve Clarke. Binks qualifies through a grandparent from Dunbar, and he is training with Scotland at their La Manga base in Spain this week.
Binks’ career has already spanned several countries. He was at Tottenham from a very young age before joining Montreal Impact in the MLS in February 2020, when he was 18. He later had spells at Bologna — where he befriended Aaron Hickey — Como, Coventry and Brondby. He joined the Danish club in the summer of 2025 and is now its captain. ‘I wasn’t really scared of the unknown,’ Binks said. ‘It was a chance for me to go and play again, hopefully play in Europe, fight for titles, cups. I want to win things. That was my whole reasoning.’
The Montreal chapter produced a surreal lockdown story. Binks had signed in February 2020, only for Covid lockdown to arrive in March. He had not yet found an apartment and was staying in a hotel; his manager, Thierry Henry, was in another. When Binks’ hotel was closed, he was offered a move to a hotel by the airport but did not want to go because there was nothing there. Henry then called and invited him to stay where he was, on another floor of the Ritz-Carlton, a five-star retreat with 129 rooms. Henry and Binks were the only residents.
‘I’d go for runs in the morning and he’d be sat in the reception on his own. When I’d get back from the run, he’d still be sat there,’ Binks recalled. ‘I’d spend a few hours with him, just trying to pick his brains.’ One night, while Binks was playing PlayStation in his room, Henry rang to ask if he wanted to get a pizza. ‘There’s me and him driving around Montreal looking for a pizza. It’s a bit surreal, but that was how it was.’ Binks asked Henry who the best defender he had played with and against was, and why. Henry spoke about Sol Campbell, what made him great and how Binks could improve as a defender. Binks says he owes Henry a lot because Henry gave him his first chance in senior football.
Now Binks is focused on Scotland. ‘I woke up every day with it on the top of my mind,’ he said of the camp. ‘It’s pretty cool. It’s a bit of a weird feeling you don’t get with club football. I’m buzzing to be here.’ He is a highly regarded centre-half who has been around, and his call-up continues an upward trajectory. The Brondby captaincy sits well with him, he says, given that he spent so many years at Tottenham captaining pretty much every age-grade side he played for. ‘People would say they could see that in me,’ he said. ‘I’d only been at Brondby a year, so to be rewarded with that [captaincy] is a good sign. There’s a lot of responsibility that goes with it.’
With a debut in view against Slovenia, Binks says the next step after his call-up is to try to play. ‘With Scotland, having been called up, the next thing is to try and play,’ he said. ‘It’s my first camp, my first time meeting everyone, but deep down I want to leave a mark on this team.’