Ryan Gauld is hoping to follow in the footsteps of former Dundee United teammate Andrew Robertson by making his Scotland debut.
The 18-year old attacking midfielder, who joined Sporting Lisbon in the summer, is in Gordon Strachan's squad for this weekend's Euro2016 qualifiers with Georgia and Poland and hopes he can emulate his old flat-mate Robertson (now with Hull City) who debuted for his country in March.
"It is huge encouragement," said Gauld. "It showed with the likes of Andy Robertson, the first time he did really well in training.
"He managed to come off the bench against Poland to make his debut and he hasn't looked back since then. I think it shows that if you get off to the right start and make a positive contribution, it can only stand you in good stead.
"It is great to play along top players (in training), it is a great opportunity to be able to do that."
Gauld added: "It would the best thing to happen to me. As a young kid, everyone watches the Scotland games whenever they are on so to be involved would be out of this world.
"It is a huge step up, you can see that from the training but with a little time in the training and getting to know everybody that is only going to help me.
"The manager said he wanted to get to know me and not to be afraid to do everything I can, and enjoy myself."
Scotland meet Georgia in Glasgow on Saturday before taking on Poland in Warsaw on Tuesday.
