Luis Binks: From Hotel Lockdown to Scotland Debut

Luis Binks leans back among the palm trees of La Manga and laughs as he tells it, but his route to the brink of a Scotland debut sounds more like a football fever dream than a steady career path.

At 25, the Brondby centre-half and captain is right in the frame to start against Slovenia on Saturday. A vacancy has opened up at the heart of Sebastien Pocognoli’s defence since Grant Hanley and John Souttar were ushered out when the Belgian replaced Steve Clarke. Binks, eligible through a grandparent from Dunbar, is one of eight uncapped players in this new-look squad.

New manager. New faces. New stories. His might be the strangest of the lot.

It begins in Montreal, just before the world shut down.

Back in early 2020, Binks walked away from Tottenham, the club he had been at since he was a kid. He wanted out of the bubble.

“I'd been at Tottenham since I was very young, but I just wanted to go and play first-team football. That was my biggest thing, to not get caught up in the whole youth system. I feel that if you get caught in that, it's not real football. I wanted to test myself.”

That desire dropped him into MLS with Montreal Impact and into the orbit of one of the game’s greats: Thierry Henry.

He signed in February. By March, Covid had shut everything down.

He hadn’t even found an apartment. One hotel, then another. Then the one he was in closed. Henry, his manager, was holed up alone in the Ritz-Carlton, a five-star sanctuary turned ghost ship with 129 rooms and no guests.

Just Henry. And, soon enough, Binks.

“They wanted to move me to a hotel by the airport and I didn't want to go because there was nothing there. It felt like prison, almost. One day I get a call from him, saying: ‘Do you want to move to where I am? You can go on the other floor’.”

So the teenager moved into the Ritz with a World Cup winner.

Two residents. One of the greatest forwards of his generation and a raw English-born defender with Scottish roots, stuck together in a luxury lockdown.

Binks would head out for runs in the empty streets. Henry would be there when he left, sitting alone in reception. He would still be there when Binks came back.

“I'd go for runs in the morning and he'd be sat in the reception on his own. When I'd get back from the run, he'd still be sat there. I'd spend a few hours with him, just trying to pick his brains.”

The scenes veer from surreal to almost mundane. One night, Binks was in his room playing PlayStation when his phone rang. Henry wanted pizza.

Suddenly, the pair were driving around a deserted Montreal, manager and teenage centre-half on a takeaway mission.

“There's me and him driving around Montreal looking for a pizza. It's a bit surreal, but that was how it was.”

He tells it now like it’s normal life, like it’s just another coach. It wasn’t.

“I'm saying it now like it's just anybody, but there's a big aura around him. I was nervous at the time, but I asked him who's the best defender he's played with and against and why and it was a good time.”

The memories blur, but one name and one lesson stuck.

Sol Campbell.

“I always remember him talking about Sol Campbell and just saying what made him great and how I could improve as a defender.”

Those hours in an empty hotel with Henry shaped him. They gave him an education and, crucially, a platform.

“I owe a lot to him because he gave me my first chance in senior football.”

From a deserted Ritz-Carlton in Montreal to a crowded fight for places in a revamped Scotland defence, Binks now stands on the edge of another first – this time in dark blue.