It has been a long and winding road trip from the Wycombe Wanderers youth team to the Scotland side for Ikechi Anya.
It took him almost a decade to reach his destination and fellow traveller Russell Martin, who was with Anya as teenagers at the Buckinghamshire club, has tracked his progress all the way.
There were a few pitstops along the way for Anya Oxford City, Halesowen, Northampton, the Glenn Hoddle Academy in Spain, Seville’s reserves, Celta Vigo, Granada, Cadiz and then current club Watford.
Now he and Martin will team up again in the dark blue of Scotland for Friday night’s European Championship qualifying Group D match against the Republic of Ireland at Celtic Park.
That the wee winger will be one of manager Gordon Strachan’s first picks for such a massive game is testament to the impact he has made at international level since making his debut against Belgium in September of last year.
He grabbed the football world’s attention two months ago by putting the Scots ahead against mighty Germany in Dortmund with a fabulous breakaway goal then sent over a perfect cross for Shaun Maloney to strike in Poland.
Now Martin is backing his one-time fellow Wycombe rookie to help Strachan’s men secure what would be a vital victory at Parkhead.
“We played in the youth team together back in 2004 and also came through to the first team together,” recalled Martin. “It has been great to see the journey he has been on since Wycombe and to see how far he has come since those days.
“The transformation in him has been huge over the past 10 years. He always had the ability but I don’t think he had the mentality to cope with it when he was a teenager. A lot of players don’t.
“So Kech has had to do it the hard way and he has had a long, old journey.
“It was through no fault of his own and he was probably a little too hard on himself at the time. However, he worked extremely hard and went away abroad to Spain and can speak Spanish now.
“So he has had experiences and has come back a lot stronger for it.”
Brighton-born Martin and Anya Glasgow-born but raised in England by Nigerian and Romanian parents both harboured hopes of playing for Scotland back then but the likes of the Republic game and the Auld Enemy clash with England next Tuesday must have seemed beyond their wildest dreams as they turned up for training at Wanderers.
Martin joked: “I didn’t even know I was Scottish in those days! No, we did know and we used to chat about it as I was desperate to get into the under-21s at that point but that didn’t quite happen.
“Kech said that he was born in Scotland even though he’s got quite a diverse background. We are all glad about that as he has been brilliant for us.
“He offers us something different that not a lot of players have. He has electrifying pace while he has also now added a real end product to his game.
“Kech is the kind of player who can produce something out of nothing, especially when we are playing away from home and are defending a bit more than we’d like to.
“To have him as an outlet on the counter-attack has been really valuable for us, as proven by the goal in Germany.
“I think his pace scares defenders, that’s for sure. As a defender you don’t want to be coming up against someone that quick as there are not many ways you can handle it.
“He loves being involved with Scotland and you can see it with the way he plays. When he does come away with the lads you can tell he is really bubbly, full of confidence.
“I’m really pleased for him that he has experienced this success, especially having known him for so long.”