Hibs Cup final hero Liam Henderson is in no rush to return to the UK and has urged more young, Scottish players to follow his lead in playing abroad.
The 23-year-old is in his second season in Italy with Hellas Vernoa, having initially made the move to the peninsula to join Bari in 2018.
He made the switch to Verona after Bari went bust, and has made 26 appearances in all competitions this campaign for I Gialloblu, scoring three goals and making five assists.
After Bari’s demise, Henderson was linked with a move back to Scotland. A return to Hibs is often mooted and something the fans would dearly love to see. Henderson has spoken before of his desire to return to Easter Road one day.
Given his enthusiasm for life in Italy however, it’s unlikely to happen in the near future, and he wants to see more Scots broaden their horizons and sample football overseas.
"Off the top of my head, I can only think of three," he told ESPN [himself, David Bates of Hamburg and Malaga’s Jack Harper].
“Going and playing abroad can only improve the national team. You're going to be on your own, but take the positives. You've only got football to focus on.
“At home [in Scotland], you can have a lot of distractions. You ask yourself ‘what shall I do after training? Shall I rush home to do something with my friends or my girlfriend?’ But here I can stay behind. I can go in extremely early like I do, go in early doors and stay all day to try and get better and better.
"Staying out here was always on the cards," he adds. "I want to make it work. I don't want to take the first opportunity to go back to UK. I want to stay here and try and get myself to the highest level."
Given the financial problems Bari suffered on their way to going out of business, Henderson had to go without being paid his wages on regular basis.
For many, that would be their cue to get out of dodge at the earliest available opportunity. For Henderson though, a little adversity wasn’t necessarily a bad thing after his football upbringing in Scotland. “I've been fortunate enough to play for Celtic, who are a well-run club, paid every time, on time," he says. "It was perfect.
“For me, it was more important to go and play for Bari. I thought, 'If I don't get paid, it's life. It's maybe going to do me a bit of good to get a bit of the real world in my career because since joining Celtic as a 12-year-old, I've had everything.
“I thought, ‘I'm just going to go for it.’ I gave 100 percent in every game for Bari, and even though I wasn't getting paid as regularly, it's the happiest I've been in my career.
“It's something you appreciate now because in the future, if it happens again, you know how to deal with it and how to deal with it better."
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