The Souttar Brothers Are Playing the Same World Cup for Two Countries

John Souttar will pull on a Scotland shirt for his first World Cup. His younger brother Harry will pull on an Australia shirt for his second, and both are centre-backs out of the same Dundee United academy.

The pair grew up in the same Aberdeenshire village. They open their World Cup campaigns on the same Sunday, in Foxborough and Vancouver. The family is split by the draw, with no group-stage meeting on the cards, and a knockout-round meeting still possible under the new 48-team format.

The Two Centre-Back Brothers from Luthermuir

John Souttar and Harry Souttar grew up in the same village in Aberdeenshire and both ended up at centre-back. John made his Dundee United debut in January 2013, the youngest player ever to feature for the club. Harry followed his older brother into the Tannadice first team in May 2016, scoring his first senior goal four days later against Kilmarnock. From there the two careers diverged: John to Hearts, then Rangers; Harry to Stoke City via loans at Ross County and Fleetwood, then Leicester City.

John is now 29 and a fixture at Rangers, where he signed a pre-contract in January 2022 and lifted the Scottish League Cup two seasons later, per his World Cup call-up at Rangers. Harry, 27, joined Leicester in January 2023 on a five-and-a-half-year deal the BBC reported at £15 million, after a long road back to the Socceroos squad. The two brothers will line up for different federations this summer, in careers that started at the same Tannadice academy a decade and a half ago.

Here is how the two brothers compare, on paper. The numbers, side by side:

Both Open Their World Cup on the Same Sunday

Scotland and Australia both kick off their World Cup campaigns on Saturday June 13 in their respective local time zones, with both games falling into the early hours of Sunday June 14 in the UK. Steve Clarke’s Scotland face Haiti at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, at 9 p.m. local. Australia’s Socceroos take on Türkiye at BC Place in Vancouver at 9 p.m. local. The two fixtures leave the Souttar family set to split games between the United States and Canada after the brothers were kept apart in the draw, a story the BBC has followed through the lineup gambles in Scotland’s Group C opener.

Scotland are in Group C with Brazil, Morocco, and Haiti; Australia are in Group D with the United States, Paraguay, and Türkiye. Both groups run from June 12 to June 25, and the brothers will each play three group games inside 12 days. The two paths through the group will only converge in the knockout rounds, where the new 48-team format offers plenty of room for a meeting.

• Matchday 1 (June 13): Scotland vs Haiti (Foxborough) and Australia vs Türkiye (Vancouver).
• Matchday 2 (June 19): Scotland vs Morocco and USA vs Australia.
• Matchday 3 (June 24/25): Scotland vs Brazil (June 24) and Paraguay vs Australia (June 25).

Scotland’s 28-Year Wait, Back in the Same Group

Scotland’s last World Cup was France 1998, and after a 28-year absence the draw has put Steve Clarke’s side back in the same group with two of the three teams who ended that run. Brazil beat Scotland 2-1 in the 1998 opener, and Morocco won 3-0 in the third group game.

For John Souttar, the 1998 World Cup is older than he is, and his first experience of any tournament at the highest level is this summer’s tournament. He is one of six Rangers players in the squad, having made his senior debut at Tannadice in January 2013 at 16 years and 99 days old. The intervening years brought two Achilles tendon ruptures, a hip surgery, and a long road back to the Scotland team. His brother Harry was already in the Socceroos squad for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, where he played every minute of Australia’s group campaign.

The two centre-backs came up together at Brechin City Boys Club before joining the Tannadice academy. Australia’s tallest outfield player at 1.98 m, Harry also ranks as the second tallest player ever to represent the Socceroos, behind goalkeeper Zeljko Kalac. Both now lead their national defences into a tournament neither had any reason to imagine a decade ago.

How Aaron’s Death Brought the Brothers Closer

The brothers arrive at this World Cup with a third Souttar absent, and his name written on both their bodies. In July 2022, between the last World Cup in Qatar and the one now beginning, Harry and John lost their older brother Aaron. The two centre-backs will each have tattoos of their big brother, to remind themselves of the impact he had, a story told in Two brothers, two nations, one World Cup. The loss has reshaped the relationship between two players who lived in different countries and played in different leagues.

The distance between Leicester and Ibrox used to mean the brothers rarely spoke, but texts and calls have become more frequent since Aaron’s illness and death, even when the subject is small. Harry has spoken openly about how the geography had kept them apart. ‘When Aaron became ill, it did bring me and John a lot closer together, certainly after his passing as well,’ he told the BBC.

John’s first Scotland goal, a header against Denmark in November 2021, came in the middle of Aaron’s illness, and he dedicated it on camera that night. ‘My brother Aaron, he’s at home,’ he said. ‘He couldn’t make it tonight, but that was for him because he helped me a lot during his rehab.’

Four years on, the brothers sit at the centre of two World Cup defences and two different national projects. The gap between the two programmes, the language, the kit, the flag, has rarely felt narrower than it does this summer. The bond is the same one they have leaned on since they were both young men in the same household.

The one good thing to come from it, if you could say it’s a good thing, would be that it’s brought me and John closer.

Harry Souttar, an Australia and Leicester City defender, told the BBC ahead of the World Cup.

The Knockout Stage Is Where the Brothers Could Meet

Scotland and Australia are in different groups and cannot meet in the round of 32 under the new bracket. The earliest the brothers could face each other on the pitch is the round of 16, with a quarterfinal, semifinal, or final still possible under the expanded 48-team format, a structure laid out in the 48-team World Cup format across three hosts.

The path for Scotland runs through Brazil, Morocco, and Haiti, the world’s sixth-, seventh-, and 83rd-ranked teams by FIFA’s June 2026 rankings. Australia’s group is the only one featuring a co-host, with three of its four teams in the top 30: USA at 17, Türkiye at 22, and Australia at 27. Both Scotland and Australia will need to navigate tough groups to make the knockouts, where the bracket then rebalances. The two paths through the round of 32 and round of 16 are not the same; a meeting would require both to win at least one knockout game.

The 2026 format sends 32 of 48 teams past the group stage, the largest in the men’s tournament’s history. The odds of any specific knockout matchup shorten with each round both teams survive. Harry has already played in one World Cup knockout round, Australia’s run to the last 16 in Qatar in 2022.

• Format: 48 teams, 12 groups of 4, 32 advance from the group stage
• Scotland’s group opponents by June 2026 FIFA rank: Brazil (6), Morocco (7), Haiti (83)
• Australia’s group opponents by June 2026 FIFA rank: USA (17), Türkiye (22), Paraguay (41)
• John’s international record: 24 caps, 2 goals for Scotland
• Harry’s international record: 38 caps, 11 goals for Australia

The Football Family Behind Both Jerseys

The brothers are not the only football-mad Souttars. Three boys and two girls all played the game, and Heather and Jack drove between Tannadice, Edinburgh, Ibrox, Dingwall, Fleetwood and Stoke to make it possible. Jack had his own career in the game, a Brechin City youth who watched his three sons try to follow him into the professional ranks. Two of those sons are at the World Cup, in two different jerseys. The third, the eldest, is the one whose absence is felt most.

Heather was born in Port Hedland, Western Australia, and that is the chain that gave Harry his Socceroos eligibility. She is the reason one son is preparing to face Türkiye in Vancouver and the other is preparing to face Haiti in Foxborough. The brothers have both spoken about their older brother’s role in shaping the players they became. Harry has said the family is ‘filled with pride’ at both of them being there, and that for him the pride is the same in both jerseys.