‘We speak to everyone in Spanish’: Oli McBurnie and Scott McKenna on embracing life at Las Palmas

Scotland internationals discuss facing Real Madrid, doing ‘far less’ heading and their linguistic horror stories

So, what was it that first attracted you to the island of Gran Canaria with its 235km of coastline, beautiful beaches, glorious golf courses, a climate where it’s 25C today, not nudging zero like back in Nottingham or Sheffield, and a football team where you can get the better of Kylian Mbappé and beat Barcelona? “Oli was here,” Scott McKenna says. There’s a smile and then the man sitting next to him starts laughing.

On 25 July Unión Deportiva Las Palmas announced they had signed Oliver Robert McBurnie, the first Scottish footballer in their history, and only the second Briton after Vinny Samways, an icon on the island. Two weeks later, they had another, McKenna joining his old mate. Now here they are in the sunshine at the Barranco Seco training ground: the original odd couple. One defender, one striker. One quiet, that first line delivered deliciously deadpan, the other forever falling about. “Me and Scott are so different, opposites,” McBurnie says. “He’s so laidback. In the best possible way, he’s like a grumpy old man. I call him mi abuelo, my grandad.”

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