Having risen up football’s pyramid, comparisons with a certain Leicester striker are inevitable, writes Will Rook...
When Jamie Vardy scored England’s equaliser against Wales at Euro 2016, Brentford forward Scott Hogan’s mind might have wandered thinking about just how far his career could go.
Having enjoyed a similar rise up football’s pyramid – from sharing a dressing room at Halifax to earning a move to a Championship club – comparisons with the Leicester City striker are inevitable.
That the pair also both spent time at Sheffield outfit Stocksbridge Park Steels, albeit at different times, only adds to those.
And even though Hogan’s Hollywood blockbuster biopic is not forthcoming, who says he has to stop here?
At 24, he is the same age Vardy was when the Foxes striker moved from the National League to the Championship.
The similarities between the two are certainly not lost on Hogan.
“I was at Stocksbridge and Halifax, two of Jamie’s former clubs, so I can see where it has come from,” he said at the end of last season.
“Jamie has had an unbelievable rise, though, and of course it is something that will inspire players like me.”
But Hogan’s progress has, in some ways, been more impressive than Vardy’s.
It was the age of 21 that he moved from Hyde to Rochdale, bridging the gap between the National League and League Two three years earlier than Vardy.
And Hogan has never once looked out of place.
It was during his time at Rochdale when he was first made aware of the comparison between him and the 2015/16 Footballer of the Year, by manager Keith Hill.
“I remember Keith saying to me – and he may just have been trying to get the best out of me – that I was better than Vardy,” said Hogan.
Clearly, Hill’s motivational technique worked.
Hogan’s form – finishing the 2013/14 season as Dale’s top scorer, with 19 goals – prompted Brentford to pay £750,000 for his services after just one season as a fully-fledged professional.
Because of two consecutive cruciate ligament injuries – which cost him 18 months of his career – it is only recently that he has been able to show what he can do.
That he netted seven times in last season’s final seven matches – his only appearances of the 2015/16 campaign – is remarkable.
Another seven goals this term have led to calls from Roy Keane for the striker, who is eligible to play for both England and the Republic of Ireland, to declare for the Green Army.
”He looks a really good player, a proper goalscorer,” said Keane, who assists Martin O’Neill, earlier this week.
”Please God, he would like to come on board with us because I think we would be good for him as well… it would be great to get him involved.”
International recognition would be fitting.
Not only to once again mirror his former team-mate, but because his performances merit it.
His progress so far suggests Hogan is not done there, either.
Casting for his silver-screen double sooner might start sooner rather than later.
