Scott McTominay, Napoli's 29-year-old Scottish midfielder, scored twice against Bodo/Glimt in the Champions League on 21 October to give Allegri's side a 4-3 victory — the club's first win of the European campaign and McTominay's first goals since returning from heart surgery.
The significance of that last detail cannot be overstated. McTominay had spoken before the match with characteristic directness, telling his teammates they needed to stay quiet and work. He then went out and did exactly that, producing what multiple Italian outlets described as the best individual performance on the pitch. For a player who had walked back onto a Serie A field less than a fortnight earlier after a serious cardiac procedure, scoring twice in a European match is not a footnote — it is the whole story of a comeback completing itself.
In Serie A this season, McTominay's numbers have been modest: four appearances, no goals, no assists, an average rating of 6.74. Those figures reflect a player easing back into rhythm, managed carefully by Napoli head coach Massimiliano Allegri. The Champions League brace does not overwrite that picture, but it does complicate any reading of McTominay as a peripheral figure. His AI overall of 76 out of 100 suggests a player with meaningful quality to contribute; the question has always been whether the body would allow it.
Napoli sit ninth in Serie A with ten points from seven matches — three wins, one draw, three defeats — which makes the European result doubly useful. It provides points in a competition where the club had none, and it provides Allegri with evidence that his midfield can carry weight when the pressure is real.
Contract discussions reported in the days before the Bodo/Glimt match now carry a different texture. A McTominay who scores decisive goals in Europe is a different negotiating subject than one still finding his legs after surgery. Napoli's midfield planning and his personal terms were already described as inseparable questions; the brace makes the answer to both feel more urgent.
He said he was nearly there. The goals suggest he has arrived.