When Lewis Ferguson became the highest scoring Scot in Serie A history, the tributes were led by the man whose record he’d just broken into tiny pieces.
A representative of the Denis Law Legacy Trust travelled to Italy before Christmas to present Bologna’s captain with a trophy honouring his achievement of overhauling the tally set in Italian football by the Scottish game’s most iconic goalscorer.
The Lawman himself then got in touch with a heartfelt personal message just weeks before he succumbed to the ravages of Alzheimer’s at the age of 84.
‘Somebody from the Law charity trust had come over with the award and presented it to me because I’d become the highest scoring Scot ever in Serie A,’ Ferguson tells Mail Sport.
‘I signed some shirts to raise some money for the charity as well and then, out of the blue, Denis himself got in touch with a lovely message a bit later.’
During a season at Torino in 1961-62, an unsettled Law defied the Italian league’s defensive tactics to score 11 times. Ferguson overtook that tally when he headed a late winner against Atalanta in December 2023. He raised his total to 14 when, earlier this month, he scored for the first time since the knee surgery which ruled him out of Euro 2024.
Lewis Ferguson celebrates his goal against Atalanta that made him Serie A’s top-scoring Scot
Ferguson with the trophy presented to him on behalf on the Denis Law Legacy Trust
Scotland icon Law messaged Ferguson to personally offer congratulations on his achievement
Characteristically light-hearted in tone, Law congratulated the former Aberdeen player on his goals in Italy, but begged him to leave his joint Scotland national team scoring record of 30 goals in 55 appearances intact.
With Law also outlining the pride he felt every time he pulled on a dark blue jersey, Ferguson was humbled and inspired by an act of generosity – and saddened by the death of a man Sir Alex Ferguson described as the greatest Scottish player of all time.
‘It was special because he was such an iconic player in Scotland,’ adds the Bologna captain, ‘one of the absolute greatest. And it was such a surprise to receive such a lovely detailed message from him telling me: “Well done, keep going, keep it up”.
‘It was really, really nice. It was a beautiful message, something he didn’t need to do and it meant the world to me.
‘That’s why I was so sad to see the news of his death last week. He was just such an iconic man, an iconic player. One of the greatest we’ve ever seen.
‘He was one of the trailblazers for Scots in Italy. And let’s just say back in the day it probably wasn’t as easy as it is nowadays. Everything is there for you now.
‘It must have been much more difficult in the 1960s, I’d imagine. So, yeah, thank you to Denis for doing that because he was an inspiration to everybody that plays the game and it was absolutely an inspiration to me when I received that.’
For Ferguson, the records and landmarks continue to fall. On Tuesday night the 25-year-old captained Bologna to their first ever Champions League win, a 2-1 success at home to Borussia Dortmund.
Law poses on the pitch before a Serie A clash between his Torino side and AC Milan in 1961
Ferguson scores for Bologna against Roma earlier this month, proving he is back to his best
Ferguson’s role in the club’s first victory in the top flight of European club football since 1964 seemed to justify months of rehabilitation at Bologna’s Isokinetic Rehabilitation Centre after an ACL injury ruled him out of Scotland’s European Championship campaign in Germany and mothballed speculation over a £20million move to Juventus.
‘I’d had such a good season,’ he reflects now. ‘I was enjoying every minute of it.
‘I was looking forward to the Euros. Bologna were just about to qualify for the Champions League. There were so many good things coming up…’
The physical pain in his knee was compounded by the mental anguish. The loss of a big summer move, doubts over his participation in this season’s Champions League. Most of all his absence from the Euros.
Invited to the team hotel by Scotland manager Steve Clarke, he preferred to stay put in Italy and crack on with the long days of rehabilitation. Watching the games on television was less painful than the physical and emotional effort of travelling to Germany.
‘Maybe going and seeing the lads and being in the stadiums, maybe that would cross your mind that it should have been me,’ he concedes.
‘I just had to take it on the chin. That’s life. I was just motivated to get back playing football and I wanted to stay back and work on my rehabilitation.
Ferguson led Bologna to their first ever Champions League win, at home to Borussia Dortmund
Club captain Ferguson celebrates with Bologna manager Italiano and defender Lykogiannis
‘It was a lot of hard work, a lot of long days. I don’t think people realise just how hard that is.’
He could barely remember his last injury. Vague recollections of a two-week knock picked up when he joined Aberdeen were the best he could come up with. Nothing he’d endured in the past could match the trauma caused by an innocuous tackle sustained in a 0-0 draw with Monza last April.
‘I had never been in that situation before,’ he says. ‘You’ve got to be mentally strong because it’s a long process. There are so many good days where you feel good doing new exercises and you start new things. Maybe you’re moving a little bit differently.
‘Then there are some days where you just don’t feel good at all and you have a bit of pain and discomfort. Those are probably the hardest days but you’ve just got to do the work and get through them. You definitely need to be mentally strong to come out the other side.’
The days which followed surgery in Bologna’s Toniolo Clinic now feel like a blur. He remembers watching AC Milan face Roma in the first leg of their Europa League quarter-final and, with his Champions League hopes now hanging by a thread, wondered if he would ever earn another chance to play against Europe’s elite. Would his shattered knee ever let him?
‘My first training session back with the team, I was really nervous,’ he explains. ‘And I’m not the type of person to get nervous before games or training sessions.
Ferguson was devastated to miss out on the European Championships with Scotland last year
The midfielder says the injury hit him hard, having never suffered a lengthy spell out before
Ferguson vies with Benfica’s Akturkoglu in a match he says convinced him he was injury-free
‘I don’t know why I felt that way, it was maybe just a bit of everything. I’d done all the training, I’d done all the work, but football is so unpredictable.
‘When we played Benfica in the Champions League, that was probably the first game where I thought: “I feel back to normal. I feel like myself”.
‘It was a physical game, there were some strong tackles. The first tackle I felt like a crash test dummy. But it just sort of eased my mind a bit.
‘I played a couple of games after that Benfica game and then started at home to Roma last week. I managed to go on the scorer’s sheet, it was nice.
‘Things feels more normal now. More Iike it was like last year.’
The return to normality means a return to speculation over his future. When he won the Bulgarelli Number 8 Award for Serie A’s best midfielder, Ferguson drew covetous glances from Italy’s biggest clubs. Napoli and the Milan giants looked set to do battle with Juventus in the summer until the injury killed the speculation stone dead.
He signed a new five-year contract with Bologna last November and expertly swats away talk of renewed interest from Inter Milan.
‘Most clubs probably wouldn’t give a player out for such a long period a new contract, so that was a nice bit of trust from Bologna,’ he says.
‘I was happy to sign because I love it here, and all the transfer stuff? Well, I get that almost every year.
‘I just sort of don’t really think too much of it. I had it in my time at Aberdeen as well, so I’m a wee bit more experienced in that side of things now.
‘I don’t think too much about any talk outside or don’t read too much into things on social media or in newspapers or what’s been reported.
‘My thoughts nowadays are that what will be will be. If the injury taught me anything, it’s the need to focus fully on the here and now…’