Blues teenager wins surprise call-up

Chelsea teenager Islam Feruz has won a surprise call-up to the Scotland under-21 squad for next week's friendly against Italy.

The Somalian-born starlet, who started out at Celtic, is still only 16 and if he plays against the Italians at Easter Road, he will make history as the country's youngest ever player at that level. Feruz will be 16 years and 197 days old when the under-21s take to the field next Wednesday but he is a young man who coach Billy Stark is very keen to take a look in what is a very experimental squad. The previous youngest player to represent Scotland at this level was Christian Dailly, who turned out for them at the age of 16 years and 322 days, having already made his debut for Dundee United's first-team. Feruz and his family came to Scotland as asylum seekers and he qualified for Scotland through the five-year schooling rule. The Blues snapped up the Scotland Under-17 international from Celtic last year for a fee after the SPL giants lost their fight to keep hold of him. Stark said: "Mick Oliver, our international scout, and (performance director) Mark Wotte have seen a bit of him in the last couple of weeks and brought back good reports. "We felt it was a wee opportunity, with the nature of this game, to bring him in and have a look at him in and around the squad." In all, there are seven players in Stark's squad who haven't won a cap yet for the under-21s.