EXCLUSIVE: Brondby captain says 'it's a dream come true' after being called up by Scotland

[p][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/brondby/67R5vKqt/"]Brondby[/a] captain [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/binks-luis/vFEyVV1J/"]Luis Binks[/a] on Tuesday received his first senior call-up for [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/scotland/fZRU25WH/"]Scotland[/a]. Born in Gillingham, Binks had a mixed youth career, where he both represented England and Scotland at Under-16 and Under-18 levels, but last year, [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/news/soccer-superliga-exclusive-brondby-s-luis-binks-on-playing-under-frank-lampard-and-spending-covid-with-henry/G6iprQRO/"]in an interview with Flashscore[/a] expressed his desire to play for Scotland at senior level, noting that he saw a strong pathway into the team.[/p][p]Today, Binks says that being called up by the national team now is 'a dream come true' and that playing for your national team is a completely different level than club football. [/p][p][b]"Now that I've been picked, it's obviously a great honour for me and my family. I think it's different to any other sort of feeling you get within football. You're not just representing a club or anything like that. You're representing a whole country. For me, it's a different feeling to anything I've had before. It's another level. I think any player that has been selected by their country would say the same thing."[/b][/p][image alt="Luis Binks Statistics" id="238f61e4-e1d7-4f26-95a5-732b496b5c26" credit-line="Opta by StatsPerform" guid="d0ea0c98-c53c-41f9-838d-3e823ba39367" original-width="768" original-height="576" /][p][b]"I spoke to a few boys today, and they just said how they've played for their country. They just said how special it is. As a kid, you grow up wanting to play international football for a country."[/b][/p][p][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/news/soccer-superliga-exclusive-brondby-s-luis-binks-on-playing-under-frank-lampard-and-spending-covid-with-henry/G6iprQRO/"]Binks already underlined his desire to play for Scotland in an interview with Flashscore[/a] before the World Cup, but says that he also understands why he wasn't included in the squad for the tournament. [/p][p][b]"Obviously, it was a dream of mine to go, but I wasn't too disappointed not going to the World Cup because I knew that there were players in that squad that brought them to the World Cup. I'd never been called up before, so for me to have been called up just for the World Cup would have been probably unfair on the players that have put in all the hard work beforehand."[/b][/p][p]"It didn't happen, but I wasn't too disappointed because I knew it would have been difficult to be called up for the first time to go to a tournament, let alone a World Cup. But I'm obviously just buzzing with the fact that I've been called up now."[/p][embed guid="8df4bddd-7d8f-4228-a26a-385609d7f322" url="https://x.com/EnglishAbroad1/status/2099815667121672290" social-type="twitter" /][p]After spending his youth career with Tottenham Hotspur, Binks completed a permanent transfer from Coventry City to Brondby IF in July last year, signing a five-year contract through the summer of 2030 after he had otherwise failed to earn a permanent spot in the starting lineups with Bologna as well as Como and Montreal Impact.[/p][p]Today, Binks says that earning his first call-up for Scotland proves that coming to Denmark was the right decision even though he went through a difficult spell in his first season. [/p][p][b]"I can't say it's been a bad choice because since I've been here, I've been named the captain of Brondby and I've now been called up to Scotland. Brondby has obviously helped me get this opportunity, but ultimately it's down to my performance and the help of my teammates and the staff here that have helped me get there. "[/b][/p][p]"I've always believed in myself. That's why I said, I'll go to another country again. I'll experience another culture because I'm not scared to do that. I believe that I can go there and I can make a difference."[/p][image alt="Luis Binks Statistics" id="507e187b-406b-4a43-a1b9-ded6e1f37842" credit-line="Flashscore" guid="c67f5ffc-1257-4783-a369-23324d36bb23" original-width="2160" original-height="2700" /][p]Binks, who says he received plenty of inspiration from French football legend Thierry Henry during his time at Montreal Impact, underlines that he has grown as a player during his time in Denmark.[/p][p][b]"I think we had a difficult spell after the winter period as a team. I think I shone in that moment because we still kept quite a lot of clean sheets. We couldn't score, or we didn't win as many games as we liked, but I feel like the defensive performances were good. I definitely improved playing next to Ben Godfrey.  I think we had a good relationship and that was good for me personally."[/b][/p][p][b]"I think this year, obviously being named captain, I've had to take on a different role to anything I've had before. Some people think you just wear an armband and that's that, but I'm learning day by day that it's not just that. There's a lot more that goes with it."[/b][/p][p]After an otherwise promising season, Brondby are currently going through a difficult spell and Monday evening suffered their third successive defeat when they lost 4-1 away against FC Midtjylland. Binks admits that the team is currently struggling after a bright start to the season.[/p][embed guid="d1e1ea94-4dd3-4c29-997a-445c718bca82" url="https://x.com/BrondbyIF/status/2099812267546063122" social-type="twitter" /][p][b]"It's not ideal because how we started the season is how we would like to carry on now. I feel like when you have a change of management and new players come in you can't just change things overnight. [/b]I know fans don't like hearing that, but I think you see it in a lot of clubs where a new manager comes in and the first few games are really good because everyone has a point to prove."[/p][p][b]"But It's never a quick fix overnight. However, we have signed really, really good players,s and we have a lot of young players coming through. It's a process that will take time, but lately things have not been how we want them to be. [/b]But we have two more games this week, and we want to go into the international break with a good spirit instead of the feeling we've had the last couple of weeks. "[/p]