How Miller rose from grief to latest Serie A Scot

A "wee Champions League ball" is bouncing perfectly for Lennon Miller in the Aberdeen players' lounge.

Father Lee, then a striker at the Pittodrie club, is blown away by the freakish technique of his two-year-old son when he "absolutely creams one" on the volley.

With the ball mid-flight, his astonishment instantly turns to horror when the wife of then Aberdeen manager Jimmy Calderwood swings open the door to the lounge with a glass of wine in her hand.

Smash. Splash.

"She was soaking," Lee recalls. "We all just stopped and were thinking, 'how's she going to react to this?'. But she just laughed it off."

At the same age, the former Scotland striker also remembers his young son oddly having the knowledge to dry the ball with his top before taking a throw.

And by the time he was four, Udinese's newest signing was attempting corners on 11-a-side pitches, even though he "couldn't hit the 18-yard box".

Needless to say, football was - and still is - young Miller's life, but his world was turned upside down at the age of just five following the loss of mother Donna, who died in 2012 after having cancer.

Now 18, and having become a talismanic figure at Fir Park, doing mum proud is what drives Miller, who has become Motherwell's record sale with his move to Italy.

"Going through that at such a young age, football has been my escape from such a devastating thing," he told BBC Scotland in 2024.

"I felt like every time I was in the house it was catching up on me and every time I was out on the pitch I forgot about it.

"If I was upset I'd always think about football, I'd talk to my dad about football. It was just my way of escaping it."

Despite his tender age, Miller played 76 times in claret and amber.

He led out Motherwell as captain at Hampden in a Scottish League Cup semi-final defeat by Rangers last November and he shone in his first two outings for Scotland over the summer.

It was Miller's 91st-minute penalty against Dundee United that booked the Fir Park side that semi-final spot, their first in more than six years.

The moment referee John Beaton pointed to the spot, dad Lee could barely watch in the stand - not because he doubted his son, but instead because of his history of dinking penalties.

"I've always had one in my locker and I've always enjoyed seeing the goalie raging," the teenage Miller joked.

"I've probably said to my dad before that if I get one, I'll dink it. But I've seen the goalie go early so I thought I'd leave it."

The fact someone so young would take the penalty in such a high-pressure situation says it all about the laidback manner in which Miller plays the game.

And it was that composed style that made him "stand out like a sore thumb" when Stuart Ogilvie, Motherwell's long-serving head of academy recruitment, watched Miller for the first time with Cambusnethan Talbot boys club.

"He was spraying passes all over the place, running the game just the way he does now," says Ogilvie, who also scouted former Scotland forward James McFadden and ex-Celtic midfielder David Turnbull for Motherwell.

"I've been in the scouting game for 30 years and the feeling I got when I watched Lennon was the same as when I watched James and David."

Ogilvie thought Motherwell's chance had gone when he learned Miller had been training with Celtic, one of many clubs linked with the teenager before his move to Italy.

However, the midfielder dropped out of their academy after feeling the demands were "too much pressure at such a young age".

Within weeks he was part of Motherwell's youth set-up and quickly became "the talk of the steamie" within the coaching staff.

Throughout his rapid development, the decision was made for Miller to train and play with older age groups - something the midfielder feels only enhanced his ability to "take the ball under pressure".

And away from that, father Lee would even allow his son to train with Falkirk while he was their manager.

Interest from south of the border in the youngster was high, but three years later - six days after his 16th birthday - Miller became the youngest player in Motherwell history when he came on in a League Cup win over Inverness Caledonian Thistle.

While he watched some team-mates leave for academies of bigger clubs, Miller understood the importance of the pathway there for him.

"That's all I wanted to do, play first-team football, because my dad told me that's the best way of developing," Miller said.

"Moving on and maybe not getting that, I thought that wasn't a good idea. I didn't want to be playing academy football for the rest of my career."

That patience and understanding, when it might have been easier to jump at a more lucrative academy contract elsewhere, has paid off big time.

Despite a two-month injury lay-off, Miller enjoyed a stellar breakthrough campaign in 2023-24, playing 32 games in a deep-lying midfield position.

His fearless ability to take the ball from the defence and link play caught the eye, but last season showed there are more strings to his bow.

Deployed in a more advanced midfield role for much of the campaign, he scored four goals and assisted eight, despite missing six Premiership games in early 2025 with a hairline ankle fracture.

He ranked in the league's top 10 for chance creation even with that spell on the sidelines, won the most fouls of any player in the division and won back possession the second-most, behind Celtic captain Callum McGregor.

"It's completely different to what I was playing," Miller said of his more advanced role. "It's taken time to get used to and I'm reaping the rewards now."

Even with the pressures of first-team football, Miller's risk-taking remains.

There are far more occasions when those risks do not pay off, but "there's no point worrying what people think," he says. "Just reset, get the ball back, and do it again".

But where does that mindset come from?

Miller has always been inspired by Kevin de Bruyne, but he feels the loss of his mum, who always wanted him to be a footballer, has been a "massive factor".

After all, misplacing a pass is meaningless in comparison to what he had to endure in his early life. So "why not try the risky pass," he adds.

That gallus approach has helped him flourish.

Experienced Motherwell duo Andy Halliday and Paul McGinn have said Miller is the best youngster they have ever played with.

When you consider Halliday trained with a teenage Billy Gilmour at Rangers, plus McGinn's younger brother is Aston Villa captain John, the comments are "obviously a huge honour".

Miller proved himself alongside Gilmour and McGinn at international level recently and now has the opportunity to shine on a new stage at club level in Serie A.

One thing's for certain, he will back himself.

After Miller was included in Steve Clarke's Scotland squad for the first time, he told the media: "I'm obviously not going to go in and be the best player there, but I believe I maybe could be in a couple of months.

"I think that's how you need to think as a football player - you need to want to be the best."