SCOTLAND’S ICON
ILLUSTRATED & IMMORTALISED
Gill Sherry
It’s 7.45pm on Tuesday 18th November 2025, and the whole of Scotland appears to be holding its breath. Less than three minutes later, euphoria takes over as Scott McTominay’s acrobatic kick hits the back of the net.
What followed was a rollercoaster of a match between Scotland and Denmark at Hampden Park which ultimately saw the home team qualify for the FIFA 2026 World Cup, 28 years after their last appearance at the world’s premier football tournament.
The match finished 4-2, with Lawrence Shankland, Kieran Tierney and Kenny McLean also adding to the scoresheet. The response to McLean’s stoppage-time winner from the halfway line was so extreme it was recorded as being equivalent to an ‘extremely small earthquake’ by The British Geological Survey.
But it was McTominay’s audacious overhead kick that set the Scots on their way, and it’s that image that now adorns the gable end of a tenement building in Somerville Drive in Glasgow, facing the west stand of Barclays Hampden.
As murals go, it’s both fitting and timely. A 36ft tribute to that goal in the vicinity of the national stadium as the team prepares for its group matches against Haiti, Morocco and Brazil.
The mural was commissioned by adidas UK in partnership with the Scottish FA and Global Street Art, Europe’s leading handpainted mural company. Muralist, Alex ‘Alko’ Coyle recalls his reaction when he was asked by Global Street Art to paint the mural.
“Firstly, they contacted me to see if I was available. I confirmed that I was and a week or so later they sent over the design. I was pretty excited when I saw it. You don’t really know what exactly it’s going to be, so I was pretty happy.”
Like many muralists, Alex began his artistic journey as a graffiti artist and went on to earn a Higher National Diploma in Visual Communication at Cardonald College in Glasgow.
“I always liked comic illustrations, superheroes and stuff, which are quite illustrative. I’ve drawn since a young age, it was just something I was always good at in school, and I’ve done it pretty consistently since.”
Why murals?
“It’s an interesting career path,” he laughs. “I like the fact that it’s public, and the scale. You can always go pretty big outside, and I like how it interacts with whatever setting you choose.”
Where do you even start when attempting something on such a huge scale?
“Generally, I would take a picture of the wall and then draw straight on top of it from my iPad, as if I’m painting on the wall, so when I get to the wall I know where everything should be. I’ve got it already planned out.”
He makes it sound simple but I’m sure it’s not. How long did the Scott McTominay mural take to complete?
“It took us a full day to paint the wall blue – the background is navy blue – because it’s so big and the wall is like pebbledash, and it was eating up the paint. That was the toughest day, physically. Then there were three days of spray painting after that. I was surprised how quickly it went up, to be honest.”
Alex worked with a team of two Global Street Art artists, Harvey Whetton and Dan Gudgeon, to complete the mural. Presumably the three of them received plenty of feedback from enthusiastic onlookers?
“Because of the position of the mural – we were on top of an electricity box – we were quite high up, but there were quite a lot of people shouting up and taking photos. I think that’s one of the main things that draws me to murals. You’re physically seeing people in person experiencing the art.”
It’s certainly attracted plenty of attention since it was unveiled in February, with Global Street Art understandably proud to have been asked to produce the mural. Lee Bofkin, CEO and co-founder, had this to say: “We’re honoured to have been asked to source the wall and paint this mural celebrating Scott McTominay’s incredible overhead kick, which helped take Scotland to the FIFA World Cup this year. We hope the fans enjoy seeing this moment immortalised in paint, 36ft high in the city of Glasgow.”
Mention should also be made of the Glaswegian photographer, Ross MacDonald, who captured the original image. Without his iconic image, the mural would not exist.
I end my conversation with Alex by asking if he’ll be supporting Scotland from home or in the USA.
“I’ll be watching from here. I know the games aren’t on at the most convenient times, but I’m going to try.”
Global Street Art is fuelled by a belief that art in public spaces has power – and as part of its mission to “Live in Painted Cities” they have produced over 3,000 pure art murals. Follow @globalstreet
on Instagram, LinkedIn and X or visit www.globalstreeetart.com.
