Ross Stewart's incredible family story many Swansea, Sunderland & Southampton fans never knew | OneFootball

Ross Stewart's father paid part of his transfer fee to help the 30-year-old get back into the Scottish pyramid in 2016

Ross Stewart has been on quite the rollercoaster throughout his career, and it's safe to say he's had to fight for everything he's earned throughout it.

The Scotsman has been an EFL regular for five-and-a-half years now, with a solid goalscoring record, especially at Sunderland, and an unfortunate injury record to go alongside it.

Hopefully, he's left the latter behind him now, having remained fit for the entirety of 2026 thus far, returning from a lengthy hamstring layoff on January 4, and scoring nine times in the calendar year to help Southampton push up the Championship table and make the FA Cup semi-finals last season.

This summer, he signed for Swansea City off the back of returning home from North America, where he was part of the Scottish national team for their first World Cup tournament since 1998.

It was a real landmark moment for Stewart, who had been through all levels of Scottish football to get to this point.

How Ross Stewart's Dad helped him secure a move back to the Scottish football pyramid

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After spells in the youth squads at St Mirren, Celtic and Patrick Thistle, Stewart was released from the latter and his route to the professional game looked difficult to achieve.

He dropped into the Juniors league following that, but unlike what that name would suggest, it was filled with a range of players of different ages. The Juniors league has its own separate governing body, and youngsters play with former internationals who can still play past the traditional retirement age.

It's a fierce competition, but it helped mould Stewart into a frontman capable of playing in the Scottish football pyramid, and in 2016, Scottish League One outfit Albion Rovers wanted to sign him, but there was one problem.

Kilwinning Rangers, Stewart's Juniors side, wanted £1,500 for the striker, but Albion could only afford to pay them £1,000. So, the 30-year-old's dad, Cameron, paid the difference.

He scored 11 times in 25 League One outings during the 2016/17 campaign, which prompted St Mirren to bring back their former youth prospect the following summer. The rest, they say, is history.

How Ross Stewart has helped pay back his Dad after key moment in career

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£500 would have been some investment at the time. Luckily for Stewart's father, Stewart would be worth £300,000 five years later when he signed for Sunderland, and £10 million in 2023 when Southampton brought him to St Mary's.

Speaking to the BBC towards the tail end of his first full season in England, a campaign which saw him score 26 times in all competitions for Sunderland en route to promotion out of League One, he spoke about how he managed to pay him back for that £500 investment.

"Dad says me living out my dreams is enough for him, but I've probably paid him back in terms of complimentary tickets to watch my games now," he said.

That interview was before he played at Wembley with Sunderland in the third-tier play-off final, scored against Arsenal in both the Premier League and the FA Cup, and made the semi-finals in the latter last year with Southampton.

There'll be some commitment to travel down to South Wales with his new club Swansea, but at this point, he's more than made good on the £500 he spent a decade ago.

Ross Stewart will be looking to hit the ground running at Swansea City

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As mentioned earlier, Stewart is coming into the new campaign having not seen the treatment room for the better part of eight months, which has to be a relief for him. Before last season, the 30-year-old had played just 28 league games in three years.

Swansea will be hoping to be one of the sides who could mount an outside push towards the play-offs this year, given the expansion to six teams, and Stewart's goals could be a benefit towards that, especially if he can strike a good partnership with last season's top scorer Zan Vipotnik.

But, above all, a campaign where the Scotsman is injury-free throughout all of it would be a massive success for him, and the first time it would have happened since the 2021/22 term.

With the 30-year-old signing a three-year deal at the Swansea.com Stadium, too, they'll be encouraged for the following two years if he can remain on the pitch in his debut campaign.