He’s been snubbed by Steve Clarke, and his Verona workforce look as doomed as town’s star-crossed lovers Romeo and Juliet … however this is why hope nonetheless springs everlasting for Kieron Bowie forward of the World Cup

One of Verona’s claims to fame is its status as the setting for Romeo and Juliet. William Shakespeare’s decision to locate his tale of doomed young love in the ancient winding streets of the Veneto city resonates to this day.

Wander the historic centre and you’ll soon find a long queue of impatient tourists waiting to snap a photo of the balcony of the so-called ‘Juliet’s House’.

What they may not realise is that, a stone’s throw to the west, at the Stadio Bentegodi, a contemporary tragedy is unfolding.

Hellas Verona’s 2025-26 season has hardly been a love affair between players and fans. Instead, it’s been a grim spectacle for supporters who have witnessed just one home league win. 

Their team have failed to leave the relegation zone since October. Most weeks, parting is not sweet sorrow by the time the full-time whistle blows.

Some felt this was coming. In the last three years, Verona have dodged the drop while averaging just 35 points per season. They pulled a death-defying survival stunt in 2023 when they won a relegation playoff.

Sporting director Sean Sogliano didn’t mince his words at the end of February. ‘The league table is ugly, dramatic, impossible. Call it what you want,’ he said. ‘I am very angry and disappointed.’

Verona are currently in last place in Serie A on 18 points, nine adrift of safety with a daunting run-in ahead of them. For Veronese newspaper L’Arena, last Sunday’s 2-0 defeat at home to relegation rivals Genoa extinguished the last flicker of hope.

‘Hellas have given up,’ it was reported. ’They are just waiting for the mathematical sentencing for relegation to Serie B.’

It has not, then, been a simple start to life there for Kieron Bowie. The Scottish striker was brought in from Hibs at the end of the January transfer window, charged with helping his new club turn tragedy into triumph.

Could he yet achieve it? A gargantuan task, yet Bowie will be motivated to keep finding the net after scoring his first Serie A goal against Bologna the weekend before last.

He is now fighting not only for Verona’s survival, but to keep his personal World Cup dream alive.

This week, the 23-year-old’s chances of earning a place in Steve Clarke’s final 26-man Scotland squad were dealt a blow when he was overlooked for the March friendlies against Japan and the Ivory Coast.

Stalwarts Che Adams and Lyndon Dykes were selected, with Middlesbrough’s Tommy Conway and Ipswich Town’s George Hirst taking the other two striker spots.

Bowie’s disappointment was unexpected, coming just a week after he scored the winner in the 2-1 victory over Bologna that ended Verona’s 12-match winless run.

He admitted after the game that he had hoped ‘to play the friendlies this month, do well there, and then potentially play my cards right for the World Cup’.

Bowie has a case for feeling aggrieved. Although his match-winning strike at the Stadio Renato Dall’Ara was his first in Italy, his total of 10 goals in all competitions this season between Hibs and Verona is better than any of the strikers in Clarke’s squad: Hirst has nine, Conway eight, Adams six, Dykes four.

What’s more, Torino’s Adams is the only other striker to be playing in a major European league, with the others competing at English Championship level.

Bowie made his Scotland bow in a 4-0 friendly win over Liechtenstein last June. Clarke said he had ‘always had his eye on’ the striker, but he was an unused substitute during the September World Cup qualifiers before making a brief cameo against Belarus a month later.

The manager left Bowie out for the decisive November double-header against Greece and Denmark, explaining that he wanted Lawrence Shankland’s ‘experience’. This latest snub suggests the striker will need to hit a remarkable hot streak to convince Clarke to gamble on him in the US this summer.

‘A lot can change over the next 10 weeks before you pick your final squad,’ Clarke said on Monday. Bowie will hope he means it.

For all the doom and gloom around Verona’s league position, he has thus far continued the tradition of Scots settling well in Serie A, starting every game since becoming the fourth Scottish player to pull on the Gialloblu shirt after Joe Jordan, Liam Henderson and Josh Doig.

Described as a ‘battering ram’ by Gazzetta dello Sport on arrival, Bowie has slowly but surely proven himself more adept than that description suggests. He has impressed with his work rate and hold-up play, even if his finishing needs improvement.

That is despite the most turbulent start imaginable. Within 72 hours of Bowie landing on Italian soil, his new club had lost 4-0 to Cagliari and head coach Paolo Zanetti had been sacked. It was quite an introduction.

Bowie quickly earned the faith of the new boss, interim coach Paolo Sammarco, who has consistently backed his new man and was full of praise for how he linked up with strike partner Gift Orban in the win over Bologna.

‘What we saw in Bologna is in their nature,’ Sammarco said of Bowie and Orban. ‘They are two intelligent players who create space for each other, understanding each other’s movements and adapting. Two players who know how to play together but have different characteristics. We expect a lot from them.’

The subsequent loss to Genoa was a bitter blow but, even then, the young Scot’s display earned praise.

Gazzetta dello Sport’s report hailed the ‘excellent Bowie’. They wrote: ‘The Scotsman rarely makes a mistake, translating every request from his coach onto the pitch.’

The reaction of L’Arena was not as glowing. They quickly called the Bologna win ‘just an illusion’.

There has been an element of bad luck to Verona’s recent form, though. They were denied an impressive draw against champions Napoli when Romelu Lukaku scored with the last kick of the game, while Parma beat them in the 93rd minute.

Bowie’s performances have steadily improved in his six appearances as he adapts to a new team, league and culture, and there is yet hope that the final weeks of the season could be fruitful for the striker.

After all, five of the seven Scots currently plying their trade in Serie A were named in Clarke’s squad this week – Sassuolo’s Josh Doig being the other exception – and Bowie doesn’t have world-beaters ahead of him in the national team pecking order.

Some illustrious opponents are coming up for Verona, with games against Inter, Milan, Roma, Atalanta and Juventus scheduled before the season’s end.

Daunting though that may be for Hellas’ survival prospects, it gives Bowie a big platform to show Clarke – and some of Italy’s bigger clubs – what he can do.

Verona are a stepping-stone team who always looks to turn a quick profit from their best-performing players. The likes of Amir Rrahmani and Tijjani Noslin earned moves to Napoli and Lazio within six months of joining, while there are only two players in the current squad – both goalkeepers – who have been there for more than two years.

It would not be a surprise to see him move on quickly but, even if Bowie goes down to Serie B with Verona, history suggests all is not lost. They bounced straight back up the last two times they were relegated, in 2016 and 2018.

Verona might look as doomed as Shakespeare’s famous star-crossed lovers but, for Bowie, there is all to play for in the final nine rounds of the Serie A season.