Meet Barney Stewart: Magic journey from uni to pro - and terrible at popular West Brom game 'werewolf'

Albion’s Barney Stewart is not wrong. A little over 18 months before his £1.2million switch to The Hawthorns, he was playing university football in Scotland while completing his studies.

The degree was sports and exercise science and, in his late teens, the English professional game was the furthest thing from west-London born Stewart’s mind.

He was banging in goals for the Heriot-Watt University team, based outside of Edinburgh, where he has family heritage. There was a 40-goal plus season, one campaign, as Heriot-Watt earned promotion from the eighth tier of Scottish football.

Such a rise, away from the pressure-cooker of an academy, has its benefits, the striker believes.

“If it's how I had to get here, I'd do it again,” Stewart told the Express & Star from Albion’s plush base at the Amendoeira Golf Resort in Armacao de Pera, Portugal.

“I've really enjoyed my journey. I think the fortunate part about it is I've never not enjoyed playing football. I've never been under a circumstance where I feel like I have so, so much pressure to perform at a young age and stuff like that.

“So I feel like I've almost always played with a bit of freedom until obviously you get to the professional level and you're like ‘right - you need to think about things a little bit more.’

“You're not just playing football with your uni pals or your young team-mates, you know what I mean? It’s a great thing because I’ve never been under that academy pressure.”

Stewart was briefly a trainee at QPR aged 14 but admitted his “heart was not set on football” so mainly enjoyed it socially.

A talented sportsman, he excelled in rugby union, Gaelic football and tennis.

“My mind wasn’t set on football at that point, I enjoyed other sports,” he added. “You name it, I was enjoying it. So I wasn’t going to commit myself.”

Heriot-Watt University is not entirely your standard higher education facility. It has a reputation for launching careers in Scottish football.

Not in the way Stewart has achieved it, though. Often youngsters would agree terms in the third or fourth tiers, Division One or Division Two, after starring for the university.

There would be rare examples of moves to the second tier Championship - and Stewart was one with a Falkirk deal in October 2024, after which he scored twice to help win promotion.

Injury the following pre-season led to a loan at Neil Lennon’s Dunfermline - fierce rivals to Falkirk - and there was an angry reaction in parts, but eight goals in 12 games smoothed things over.

He was recalled in late 2025 and quickly hit his straps in the top flight, including a hat-trick over Hibernian in a tally of eight goals in 17 league outings.

A new deal came in January but Albion’s interest was floated soon after, and the rest is history.

Described by Baggies staff as extremely keen and eager to make his mark, Stewart has already become popular among his team-mates as bonds develop in Portugal.

He has unwound with young squad members but also played golf with senior colleagues Nat Phillips, Chris Mepham and Alex Mowatt. A bit of water polo in the swimming pool has been popular with players too.

But, after intense days of double training sessions - physical “beastings” as he calls them - Stewart, 22, admitted there is no better pastime than a bit of cards, or better still, the catch-the-imposter game ‘werewolf’.

Stewart explains it is like the TV hit The Traitors, or a similar game ‘imposter’.

He said: “The boys just sort of go into each other's rooms and we'll play a game called Wolf, there’s a narrator and two traitors.

“Depending on who turns up, really, we’ll just sort of chill. Evenings are very much just relax, recover, because you know you're going to get beasted the next day, so you've got to mentally prepare for that.”

And the best - or worst - at deception? “Definitely Harry. Harry Whitwell thinks that he's got some deceitfulness around him.

“He always comes up with the maddest theories as well as to why someone else is a traitor - but he just chats out his a***.

“He's honestly miles off it, but he thinks he's good. I think I could be the worst traitor, potentially, because I look at my card and I start cheesing because I'm like ‘how am I going to do this?’ It’s a good laugh.”

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