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Lawrence Shankland started his career in the Queen’s Park youth system, making his first team debut for the club as a sixteen-year-old. The striker was the club’s top scorer during the 2012/13 season before moving to Scottish Premiership side Aberdeen. He made just seventeen first team appearances for the Dons, spending the majority of his four-year spell with the club out on loan. Shankland signed for Ayr United in 2017 after being released by Aberdeen, scoring 29 goals in his first season as Ayr won the League One title, with the striker being named the PFA Scotland Players’ Player of the Year. After scoring 34 goals in 41 games during his second year with the club, he made the move to fellow Scottish Championship side Dundee United in July 2019. The striker was the division’s top scorer as United were promoted back to the Scottish Premiership in 2020 and he scored a total of 40 goals in 78 appearances for the club before moving to Belgian side Beerschot in 2021. After one season in Belgium, he returned to Scotland with Heart of Midlothian and became the first Hearts player to score 20 goals in a single season since 1992 during his first year with the club. Shankland reached the 50-goal milestone for the club in February 2024, becoming only the second player to reach that figure for the club in the 21st century. At international level, the striker scored two goals in four games for the Scotland Under-21 side before receiving his first senior cap against Russia in October 2019. Three days later, he scored his first international goal on only his second cap during a 6-0 victory against San Marino. After a two-and-a-half-year absence from the Scotland squad, Shankland was recalled in March 2023, coming on as a late substitute during a famous 2-0 victory over Spain. The striker was named in Steve Clarke’s 26-man squad for EURO 2024, appearing in all three group stage matches as a substitute. Shankland was part of the squad that qualified for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, and he scored a crucial goal in the final qualifier against Denmark as Scotland qualified for the tournament for the first time since 1998.
