Scotland star John McGinn poses in 'goggles' celebration for Euro 2024 squad photo

Updated: 13 Jun, 2024 • 0 • min read

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Scotland star John McGinn poses in 'goggles' celebration for Euro 2024 squad photo

Scotland star John McGinn dons a pair of imaginary specs in the official Euro 2024 squad photo, but what's the story behind it?

The Aston Villa captain is set to head to only his second major international tournament with Scotland after the Tartan Army failed to qualify for the 2022 Qatar World Cup.

The 29-year-old is one of the driving forces which has brought his nation back into the international limelight.

This is just Scotland's second major tournament since 1998, with McGinn also crucial in the run to reaching Euro 2020.

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If Scotland are to achieve arguably their greatest ever result in the European Championship, McGinn is likely to be heavily involved.

With 18 international goals to his name, McGinn, by a distance, is the top scorer in the squad.

And every time the midfielder scores a goal, the "goggles" comes out.

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On each goal, McGinn has cupped his hands around his eyes to mimic wearing goggles in what has now become his trademark celebration.

On surface level, it may seem just another trademark such as Cristiano Ronaldo's "SIU", but it's actually got a really nice reason behind the celebration.

It is a gesture of support for McGinn's nephew, who has poor eyesight and requires goggles to play football.

Speaking about it in a Europa Conference League press conference back on November, McGinn said:

It was supposed to be for Euro 2020! My nephew, he's got poor eyesight, and he has to wear the goggles to play football.

So, I decided it would maybe give him a bit of support to put the goggles on when I score.

Now he's happy, his teammates at football up in Scotland carry on the celebration, and I'm sure that hopefully inspires a lot of children.

A lot of people I played with when I was younger had to wear the goggles, and when you're younger, it's difficult and you feel socially kind of out of it.

It's just a wee nod to Jack and now it's stuck. Hopefully if I'm scoring, I'm getting the goggles out and keep doing it.

McGinn arrived in Germany fresh off the back of an incredible season with the Villans, which saw them qualify for the Champions League for the first time since 1983.