McPake earns first Scotland call-up after three-year rise from being club-less

Josh McPake has been called into Sebastien Poconogli's Scotland squad for this week's Nations League camp, capping a three-year turnaround that began when he had no club. The 25-year-old winger's selection follows a rapid rise from playing in the third tier less than two-and-a-half years ago to starring for Hearts this season.

McPake came through the Rangers academy, where he was named player of the year in 2019 and made a solitary senior appearance off the bench in a Europa League qualifying win over St Joseph's. He subsequently had six loan spells — at Dundee, Greenock Morton, Harrogate Town, Morecambe, Tranmere Rovers and Queen's Park — before leaving Rangers on 1 September 2023 and spending almost six months training without a club until Stirling Albion signed him on a short-term deal.

At Stirling he scored on his debut and, according to then-Binos boss Darren Young, impressed in training. "He came into training and he was brilliant - he couldn't have done any more," Young told BBC Scotland. "He worked very, very hard. He helped put balls away after training, he was always doing extra bits of shooting and finishing - I joked to him once or twice, 'if you don't get your finger out then you'll end up back here part-time' but it was one of those where you could see his ability, he was head and shoulders above the guys."

McPake had earlier scored the only goal for Scotland Under-19s against Germany in October 2019, but his club career continued to have setbacks after leaving Rangers. St Johnstone signed him to a two-year deal following his spell at Stirling, yet he struggled for game time under Craig Levein and again after Simo Valakari took charge in October 2024; Valakari said last year, "We made Josh available in January and offered him to many clubs because he needed to play. The truth is, nobody wanted him. We couldn't find him any clubs."

Those challenges preceded a run of form that helped resurrect McPake's career: he started St Johnstone's first Premiership game of their five post-split fixtures, kept his place through the end of the season and registered three assists. Despite the club's relegation, he was later St Johnstone's standout player as they won the Championship last season, beginning the campaign with a hat-trick against Partick Thistle and finishing the division with 16 goals.

Hearts agreed a pre-contract with McPake in January and he completed the move to Tynecastle despite Derek McInnes leaving the club for Rangers before McPake's debut. He missed Hearts' Champions League qualifiers against Sturm Graz and the club's first league game under Wouter Vrancken, but has since registered eight goal involvements in 11 games, including a goal and an assist in the Edinburgh derby that supporters have celebrated with the Abba lyric "having the time of his life."

Reflecting on his journey after the Scotland call-up, McPake said: "I've loved every part of the journey. Personally, I feel I needed those experiences to become the player I am now. "There were a lot of setbacks but going down the levels, proving myself and working my way back up taught me a lot. "If you want something enough and work hard for it, you can achieve it. "I don't want to stop here. I feel I've still got more to give and I'll continue working hard to show what I can do."