The rise and rise of 'Meatball' McGinn

In the days following Unai Emery's appointment as Aston Villa head coach, John McGinn was north of the border catching up with some old friends.

Some classic west of Scotland pessimism set in.

"He's going to think 'Who's this wee Scottish guy?'" he told his mates in a panic, fearing the worst about his role in how the Spaniard would reshape Villa.

If he was to replay that scene in his head almost four years on, he would surely find it difficult not to chuckle at his own expense.

McGinn lifted Villa's first major silverware in 30 years last month and the 31-year-old has just enjoyed his highest-scoring season at club level.

It is the latest in a line of success stories McGinn has been integral to.

At St Mirren he was part of their first cup triumph in 26 years while he played the full 90 minutes when Hibernian ended their 114-year wait for another Scottish Cup.

He will feature in his nation's first men's World Cup match in 28 years on Sunday (02:00 BST) after playing a key role in back-to-back European Championship qualifications.

Whatever jersey he has on, success seems to follow the all-action midfielder - and it doesn't feel like pure coincidence.

Defying the odds and hitting new heights has been the tale of a relentless ascent - although it is one that was a millimetre away from cruelly ending before it had really started.

BBC Scotland charts the rise of a modern-day Scotland great, from Clydebank council pitches to football's grandest stage.

Before you tell the story of the Villa midfielder, there is a tale to be told about a family deeply ingrained in football.

The chances of a youngster in the UK achieving their dream of making it in the professional game are lower than 1%, so it is quite something for McGinn and his two older brothers to have all managed it.

Paul, a former postman, played at Queen's Park alongside Scotland internationals Andy Robertson and Lawrence Shankland. He is now captain of a thriving Motherwell side.

His other older brother, Stephen, who also played for St Mirren, seems destined for a successful coaching career given the impressive work he has done as part of Falkirk's backroom team.

His late grandfather, Jack, was Scottish FA president and Celtic chairman. His mum, Mary, taught her youngest son at school and even coached his school team.

Born and raised in a working-class area on the outskirts of Glasgow, McGinn takes pride in the fact his rise has taken a different path from many Premier League players.

He buzzed about the streets of Clydebank while his brothers tried to make their way in the game.

'No ball games' signs posed a problem - as they did for many '90s kids on west of Scotland council estates - but McGinn chose to rebel. Well, his mum did.

After pestering the local council into submission, two sets of goals were hammered into a nearby patch of gravel where the McGinn brothers, extended family and friends could run wild.

Without that persistence from mum, who knows where the careers of her sons would have gone, if anywhere.

McGinn spent day and night dreaming of becoming Celtic great Henrik Larsson on that red ash pitch. Then it became Shunsuke Nakamura. But when Stephen broke into the St Mirren side, he had a new hero.

Within minutes of the gates opening in Paisley, McGinn was sitting front row to see his big brother warm up.

Watching those experiences drove him on and, within a few years, he was in St Mirren's first team himself. "He was a revelation," said former manager Danny Lennon.

"He wasn't the biggest, but he had the heart of a lion," added the ex-Buddies boss, who led the Paisley club to their 2013 League Cup triumph.

McGinn thought his career had peaked that night, which ended with the youngster being carried out of a Glasgow pub and bundled into a taxi home.

The idea that McGinn's career had hit its ceiling could not have been further off the mark, but he was lucky to have one at all two years later.

A training-ground prank went horribly wrong when St Mirren team-mate Steven Thompson injured McGinn by piercing his thigh with a spiked pole.

McGinn revealed he would have "bled out in a minute" had he been punctured a millimetre closer to his femoral artery.

A breakthrough spell at St Mirren came to an end in 2015, and he joined a Hibs side then in the second tier after potential moves to Wigan and Houston Dynamo failed to materialise.

He experienced Scottish Cup glory with Alan Stubbs, but his game went to a new level under Neil Lennon, who described McGinn as "the fulcrum" of his team.

But the former Celtic boss was not shy in giving his star man tough love.

Boasting the reputation of the Championship's top performer, Lennon told McGinn "you're not even the best player in your house" in the aftermath of a defeat to brother Stephen's St Mirren.

He was later fined for taking a shortcut home by leaving Paisley with his family rather than travelling on the team bus back to Leith.

McGinn was at a McDonald's drive-through when a furious Lennon phoned. With Stephen in the car with him, McGinn was told it was the "closest you've got to your brother all night".

Together with Scott Allan and Dylan McGeouch, Lennon's Hibs midfield became one of the most formidable in the country after their promotion back to the top flight.

McGinn was the shining star, though.

"Some of the games there would be boys on his shoulders trying to get the ball off him and he would never lose it," his former team-mate Allan tells BBC Scotland.

"I was expecting him to be all action and a wee bit loose with the ball, but I was most surprised about how good he was technically.

"That's not mentioned enough, but that's because you always see his fight and drive."

In post-match father-son debriefs, Allan's dad had no problem letting his boy know he had underperformed.

With McGinn, however, it was different, mainly because it rarely happened.

"My dad would always say to me: 'John can't have a bad game, he's always involved'," Allan recalls.

"And the way he uses his bum to protect the ball... I show my own son that when he's playing football. It's such a bizarre thing to say, but it's such a crucial tool."

That ability to repel opposition players has become a trademark move.

His physique had been questioned and he has conceded he is "no stick man" and "will never be ripped to shreds".

He just wanted to be noticed for using his body "in a unique way" - and Villa did, paying £2.75m for his services as Celtic failed to stump up the cash.

That now looks a colossal misstep from the Scottish champions, given the bargain McGinn has proved to be south of the border.

A crunching tackle at the Holte End against Wigan on his Villa debut endeared him to the support. His first goal, a wonder strike against Sheffield Wednesday, came a month later.

He ended his first campaign in Birmingham by scoring the winner in the Championship play-off final against Derby at Wembley.

It is poignant that the lad responsible for taking Villa back to the Premier League in 2019 went on to lift the Europa League as captain seven years later.

He has become a legend at the club with more still to give, but it is his bubbly, larger-than-life character that sets him apart from most.

When revealing to BBC Sport in 2022 why he was given the nickname 'Meatball', he said it was born from him having a "big, round head" with a buzzcut during his days at St Mirren.

Last week, he was comfortable admitting to BBC Scotland that he had packed a European plug adapter for his summer trip to the US.

McGinn does not take himself too seriously - possibly because he knows if he did that he would be brought crashing back down to earth by his grounded family and friends.

"He's the same person he is now as he was back then," Allan adds. "That's a huge credit to himself and his parents."

McGinn was called up and capped for his nation when playing in Scotland's second tier. That is rare.

His ability helped earn him that, of course, but it was an off-field moment that Gordon Strachan noticed when spying on the Under-21s that told the head coach he was right for his squad.

With the kit man struggling to remove equipment from the team bus, McGinn was the only player to offer a helping hand as his team-mates headed straight for the training pitch.

"That told me right away what he is about - he looks after people," Strachan said.

McGinn has recently received praise from fans for voicing concerns to Kevin Bridges about World Cup ticket and travel costs in a new BBC documentary.

Those issues were brought up as McGinn waited for his full Scottish breakfast - with an "extra tattie scone" - being cooked up in his local Clydebank cafe.

After 10 years, 86 caps and 20 goals, there is a scenario in which this man of the people retires as Scotland's men's leading scorer and most-capped player.

He is 16 appearances off the record set by Sir Kenny Dalglish, whose joint landmark goals tally with Denis Law is 10 better than McGinn's.

The problem he has as far as the caps milestone is concerned, is his captain Andy Robertson is above him and showing no signs of exiting the national side.

Robertson's rise has rightly been given the fairytale treatment, but McGinn's is on a similar scale.

McGinn is 31 but his story still has pages to fill. Another Champions League campaign is on the way in a Villa side buoyed by long-awaited silverware.

First, however, there is a World Cup to savour.

McGinn is a Harry Potter fanatic, but there is no fiction about the story of the boy from Clydebank who will in the coming weeks attempt to sprinkle more magic on the career of his dreams.