Millwall's new striker Lyndon Dykes had a very different job before football | OneFootball

Growing up in Australia, Scotland international striker Lyndon Dykes might easily have not ended up choosing a career as a professional footballer.

Millwall have added the Scotland international Lyndon Dykes ahead of the start of the new season, but their new striker might have ended up taking a very different path to professional football.

They might not have yet reached the Premier League, but Millwall have been one of the Championship's success stories of recent years. Since they were last promoted back to the second tier nine years ago, they've finished in the division's top ten no fewer than six times, pushing last season for an automatic promotion place before finishing third and losing out to Hull City in the play-off semi-finals.

The aim will be to go one step further in 2026-27, and the summer has consequently seen the club busy in the transfer market. The latest name to have arrived at The Den is Scotland international striker Lyndon Dykes, after the striker failed to agree terms with Charlton Athletic, for whom he played for the second half of last season.

Dykes qualifies to play for Scotland through his parentage, although he was born and brought up in Australia, and football wasn't his first priority when he was younger. Indeed, his entire life would have turned out very differently indeed, had he followed his original childhood ambitions.

Factory work and family encouragement persuaded Lyndon Dykes to take his playing career more seriously

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Dykes was first called up to the Scotland national team in August 2020, and the following March, in an interview with BBC Radio 5 Live Rugby League Podcast, he revealed that the oval-ball game had been his childhood preference.

"You never know what might have happened had I stuck with rugby league," he told them: "I would probably have been a bit bigger for starters, and had a broken nose here and there. But I loved it, I still love it, grew up playing it and enjoyed every moment." Dykes supported the Canberra Raiders rugby league team, but although he was keen on the game and could play it, he didn't get the opportunity with them.

He played football as well, though, and although rejected by a couple of A-League teams while playing lower league football, he still toured England with the Australian Schoolboys before visiting family in Dumfries and getting a trial with the Scottish club Queen of the South's under-20s. After returning to Australia when this was unsuccessful, he was encouraged by his family to pursue a career in professional football and returned to Queen of the South at the start of 2016, signing his first professional contract.

Prior to his move into professional football, Dykes had been working in a factory for the sportswear manufacturer BLK, heat sealing the numbers and badges onto the backs of shirts. He explained what happened in an interview with the Evening Standard in December 2020: "[I was] working in a factory bloody 8am to 5pm and then going to play football at night just for a bit of fun,” he said.

Dikes had previously admitted, in an interview with the BBC in 2019, that it was his return to Australia which sharpened his focus towards becoming a professional footballer: "I wasn't committed," he told them, "I was too comfortable enjoying myself. And it just switched one day and I thought, 'I need to put my head down and just try here'." That clearly paid off, with a professional career that has now lasted for more than a decade.

What's being said about Lyndon Dykes on social media

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The arrival of Lyndon Dykes at Millwall shortly before the start of the 2026-27 season has provoked a flurry of social media comment, so here's a selection of what's been said about him signing for the club.

This Lions fan is confident that Dykes could hit the heights of a former legend:

Meanwhile, this fan had a bit of a pun to welcome him to The Den:

On a one-year contract and with no transfer fee payable, this fan feels that the striker is a low-risk gamble for Millwall:

But this Scotland fan is a little concerned that Dykes' presence in his national team is denying opportunities to younger strikers:

There's no doubt that Lyndon Dykes made the right decision by switching football codes

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It's highly doubtful that Lyndon Dykes would have made the sort of money that he's made from a football career in rugby league or from working in a factory, though it took him a while to move in the direction of big money moves.

He stayed with Queen of the South until 2019 before moving to Livingston, and it was there that he caught the eye of Queens Park Rangers, who paid £2 million to take him to Loftus Road in the summer of 2020. Since then, he's become a familiar presence in the Championship and League One.

Figures from Fotmob.

Lyndon Dykes has never been a great scorer of goals, but his bustling presence could be well-suited to Millwall's way of playing. At 6'2" tall, he's exactly the sort of striker who could flourish under Alex Neil's direct way of setting up his team. And at 30 years of age, there's still time for Dykes, who's never played above the second tier in England, to get a taste of the Premier League.

All new signings carry an element of gamble about them, but with no transfer fee payable, he is a relatively low-risk one for Millwall, and he could yet become a hero at The Den if he can help to take them one step further than they managed in 2025-26. It certainly beats heat sealing badges and the names of other players onto the backs of shirts. This season, Lions fans will be buying shirts with his name printed on the back of them.