The footage may have been grainy and washed out, but the talent on show in a tweet from Caroline Weir back in July was abundantly clear.

The fact that hazy video would be used years later to signal her arrival at the Spanish club tells a story about how many times that ball was tossed around the Weir’s back garden in Fife over the years.

A trailblazer for women’s football in Scotland, Real Madrid’s new superstar has the chance on Tuesday to help her country to their second World Cup finals. It’s a staggering prospect, but one that will no doubt be taken in the stride of the 27-year-old, who spent her youth idolising the dynamic duo of Zinedine Zidane and Dunfermline Athletic’s Stevie Crawford.

Puskas nominations & flying high in Madrid

Anyone signing from British soil for ‘Los Blancos’ would be a landmark event, but a Scot doing so is pretty much off the chart.

Yet Weir’s ascent to the Spanish club did not surprise many. She had been a key player at Arsenal and Liverpool and then during four years at Manchester City she won two two FA Women’s League Cups and two Women’s FA Cups to add to the one claimed with the Gunners.

Individual recognition also flooded her way. Weir claimed the player of the match award in 2019’s WSL Cup final, while she was also nominated for two Fifa Puskas awards for strikes dripping in guile and brimming with confidence against city rivals Manchester United.

“‘Kaka’ does that all the time,” said former Scotland team-mate Kim Little of her first nomination, a rasping 20-yarder into the top corner. “I play against her in the league down in England and, for me, she is one of the best technical footballers you will come across.”

Now in Madrid, Weir continues to push herself and excel. The Scot has scored five times in six games, including four in four in the Champions League. The official Real website describes Weir as a “stand out” in attack during a 100% start to the campaign for Alberto Toril’s team. Three assists have also been offered up during that time.

“She’s living a different experience about football,” Scotland head coach Pedro Martinez Losa told BBC Scotland. “I have worked in five countries and it brings you to a new level and you have a wider vision about everything.

“She comes from a club that I have supported since I was a kid – it’s a special club. Everything that’s happened there, even if they are just starting in the women’s game [two years ago], I think they will accelerate quickly.

“She’s performing and fitting in very well. Her capabilities as a player sit very well with what Real Madrid is and hopefully she will continue to enjoy it and keep scoring goals.”

‘Football was everything growing up’

Dunfermline’s East End Park is a different stratosphere to pulling on a Real Madrid kit, but the Fife ground is where a young Weir and her siblings were first hooked on the sport.

Speaking in a Scottish FA podcast last year, the 27-year-old talked of life as a primary school kid with weekends dominated by football. Mornings were spent playing for a boys team, afternoons were left to watch her beloved Pars before the sacred Sunday morning ritual of Match of the Day re-runs kicked in.

But, even at a young age, where she was thriving in an all-boys team, Weir had the awareness to know something had to change. “It’s just the way it was back then,” Weir said. “On the way back from a game, I said ‘Dad, what’s the next move?’. This is me at age 10… I knew girls can’t play in a boys team forever.”

It was then that a move to the Hibernian academy beckoned, with a 10-year-old Weir starting out in a under-13s girls team.

“She was just a little girl at the time, but you saw from a mile away how good she was,” Hibs defender Siobhan Hunter, who came through the Easter Road academy with her, said. “Her left foot was incredible.

“We went back to her house after we played a game. This was 15 years ago and she had a five-a-side astro pitch in her back garden. To have access to that every day, you knew even after playing she was going home to practice little skills.

“At the age of 10, she’d kick a ball 40 yards in the air and bring it down with one touch.”

Scotland’s next icon

Weir is one of many strong figures in the this Scotland side.

Chelsea’s Erin Cuthbert is a ball of energy, dynamism and attacking instinct within Martinez Losa’s team, which is potentially a win against the Republic of Ireland away from next year’s Women’s World Cup.

You can also add in captain Rachel Corsie, Angel City’s Claire Emslie and Martha Thomas of Manchester United. The list goes on.

But the star belonging to the girl from Dunfermline in that worn-out home video is shining brightest right now.

She has big-game experience of major tournaments like so many in the squad, with a winner against Spain at the Euros five years ago and three games under her belt at the World Cup in France. She impressed again in the play-off semi-final win over Austria last week and an expected record competitive crowd will be looking to Scotland’s No.9 again on Tuesday.

“I think it’s something we do take seriously,” said the Olympian of her profile and that of her team-mates. “Growing up, I don’t think a lot of us had the role models that we are now to young girls and young boys in Scotland. It’s something we are very proud of that you guys describe us as role models.

“I was a massive Zinedine Zidane fan. That was my role model growing up in a football sense. But I have two older sisters, so in terms of strong women, including my mum, I’m surrounded by strong women.

“[My parents’ support] is massive and they still [do] to this day. Without them, I would not be in the position I am in now. They supported me from such a young age to follow my dream, which was to be a professional footballer, without even knowing if that would be possible.”

Sourced From BBC