Asked to describe the journey which has taken him to the brink of full international recognition with Scotland, Luis Binks smiles and answers with three words. Nice. Weird. Random.It feels all of that and more. A life less ordinary punctuated by encounters with superstars and the faintly surreal. Where to even begin?Given he spent his formative years there, Spurs feels apt. Born in Kent, the defender came through the club’s academy but could see the roadblock to the first team up ahead when a professional contract was put in front of him at the age of 17.Having resolved to turn it down and try his luck elsewhere, he informed the academy staff of his decision.‘They said: “That’s fine… you can tell that to the first-team manager”,’ he explained.‘Then (Jose) Mourinho came around with his entourage.’ Binks trains with the Scotland squad for the first time in La Manga The centre-back has been starring for Danish side Brondby, who he captains Mourinho tried to convince a young Binks to stay at Spurs, but he moved onThere are probably easier conversations for a teenager to have. Binks, though, admirably stuck to his guns.‘He said: “You know I gave Raphael Varane his debut and captaincy at 18”, and all this and that,’ Binks added.‘I was thinking I’m not at Real Madrid and I’m not Varane. If he had the opportunity to buy a centre-back for £50-60 million, he was going to do it. I didn’t want to get stuck in that cycle of being an old player stuck in the 23s.‘He said: “You’ll come on pre-season, you’ll play the cup games and then you can go on loan if you’re not happy”.‘I was like, no. I was quite stubborn. I had it in my head. No one was pushing me. It was me. Then he said: “Okay, that’s fine”. And I think a couple of weeks after I left, he got the sack anyway.’It wasn’t a decision that he took without a safety net. Binks shared an agent with Thierry Henry and knew there was an offer to join the newly appointed Montreal Impact manager in Canada and gain the first-team exposure he craved.It started well with a couple of appearances in front of packed stadiums. Covid then changed everything.‘It all shut down,’ he recalled. ‘I didn’t go home for nine months. We were training on our own, four players at a training ground at a time on half a pitch, doing keep-up, whatever.’ After leaving Spurs, Binks made his way to Canada, where he played for Montreal Impact The defender spent time with his Montreal head coach Henry during the Covid lockdownAt least kicking a ball gave him some sense of normality. Away from the training ground, his life was about to get utterly bizarre.‘I was in another hotel by the airport — it felt like prison,’ Binks said. ‘One day, he (Henry) rang me and said: “I’m in this hotel on my own. Do you want to move in on another floor?”‘We couldn’t be too close and everything. So, I was like, yeah.‘So, I moved into the hotel with him and it was just me and him and maybe two staff, a cleaner and a receptionist.‘It was probably for about two months. Then I got an apartment and things started moving a bit. Those two months were a bit surreal.’Binks believes the end of the arrangement probably came not a moment too soon.‘I think I was getting on his nerves a little bit,’ he laughed.‘But I think it was good because he didn’t have anyone else out there as well. It was just me and him.‘I’d go for a run in the morning. He’d be sat in the reception and I’d come back and just try and pick his brains — who’s the best manager you worked with, best player you played with, all these things.‘I’d have dinner in my room, but, one day, he did ring me and said: “Do you want to go and get a pizza?”‘One of his friends had a pizza shop in Montreal and they shut the restaurant, so it was just me and him having a pizza in it. He was brilliant for me and a good guy.’ The journeyman returned to England to play for Coventry before leaving for BrondbyHis sense of adventure heightened by moving abroad, Binks signed for Bologna and was farmed out for a season to Como. His team-mate for that season in Serie B? Try Cesc Fabregas, now manager of the upwardly mobile Italian club.Little wonder that meeting up with the established stars of the Scotland squad this week hasn’t been quite so daunting.‘I don’t regret any of the decisions I’ve made because I think it’s grounded me as a player better, experiencing different cultures, different playing styles,’ he reflected.‘To now be sitting here with some of the Scotland players who have had the careers they’ve had, I’ve always been around people like that.’The very fact that he now captains Danish side Brondby after moving there last year from Coventry underscores his credentials and fully justifies the quirky career path he’s followed.Sebastien Pocognoli certainly likes what he sees in him — a vocal, ball-playing centre-back who seems well suited to the aggressive front-foot approach the Belgian advocates.Despite his English accent and the fact he played in the England youth set-up, Binks is all-in on this.‘I always enjoyed playing for Scotland,’ he said of a relationship which stretches back to wearing the Dark Blue in the Victory Shield.‘It felt like a very close-knit group. Then I got called up to both England and Scotland at the same time and I probably got pushed down the England route a bit more.‘Being in an English academy, there were a few players in my Tottenham team that were going away with England as well.‘I don’t want to make it sound bad, but when you were with England the boys who were at big clubs, your Chelseas, your Arsenals, your Man Citys, they were doing this, they were doing that.‘Whereas when you went with Scotland, it was just “we’re all here to play for Scotland. Let’s do as best as we can”. New Scotland boss Sebastien Pocognoli has named a new-look squad for his first matches‘I enjoyed being around the boys. It felt like a boys’ holiday, like you were with your mates as opposed to just playing with anyone. I’ve always just enjoyed the whole vibe around the Scotland camp.’His family’s pride at being brought in ahead of the Nations League campaign is palpable, the Caledonian connection being a maternal grandfather from Dunbar.‘Even when you sign for a new club you don’t really get this feeling,’ he said of the call-up. ‘I can’t really describe it because to represent the country is every boy’s dream growing up.‘My family are buzzing. My mum was screaming. She always took us back up there as kids to try and keep that Scottish going in us.‘I owe that to her because when I was brought up in England, if I hadn’t kept going back to Scotland in the six-week holidays and Easter holidays, then I probably wouldn’t feel that connection.‘We used to always go up to try and find the Loch Ness Monster and go to Dunbar. We’d go to Parkhead and Ibrox too. We always used to go and see a game as well.’Those who can make it will be at Hampden next week too, in the hope of seeing him strutting his stuff against Switzerland, the next chapter in a captivating story. The beauty of it is that it’s only really beginning.