MALKY Mackay, the SFA Performance Director, yesterday expressed hope that Shelley Kerr, who has been appointed Scotland’s women’s coach, will serve as an inspiration to a generation of promising youngsters.

Kerr, who became the first woman to take charge of a men’s team in British senior football when she was appointed manager of Stirling University back in 2014, will take over from Anna Signeul after the Euro 2017 finals this summer.

Mackay, who succeeded Brian McClair as performance director in December, has been charged with resurrecting the fortunes of our national game and has been outspoken about “baller” culture since taking up his new role.

Read more: Shelley Kerr open to return to men's game in future despite being appointed Scotland women's manager

He believes that Kerr, who was stopped from playing football at school and worked on a production line in a factory as a young woman, is the perfect example of the heights that can be reached if kids apply themselves properly.

“There has to be an inner desire to get over adversity in their lives because everyone has adversity in their lives,” said Mackay. “The ones who come through it take it on, others chuck it.

“Shelley worked in a factory, went away and had a baby, came back and won over 50 caps. She overcame adversity to become the first women’s coach in the men’s game to now becoming the national team manager.

“My job is to highlight people like her and say : ‘There’s the national manager - who started work in a factory’.”

Meanwhile, Mackay has defended the controversial comments he made about the “neediness of social media-obsessed” kids last month and stressed that educating boys and girls as young as 11 about nutrition will be key to halting the decline of our national game.

The former Watford and Cardiff City manager believes the sport in this country has to fight against “genetics and our national diet of pie suppers” in order to improve the number and standard of player we produce in the future.

Read more: Shelley Kerr open to return to men's game in future despite being appointed Scotland women's manager

He said: “My focus is to try and produce enough players that Gordon (Scotland manager Strachan) and Shelley don’t turn around and ask: ‘Is that all I’ve got?’

“At 17 there are certain things ingrained in our leading youngsters that are not good enough – they have got to eat and train properly, train to the extent our top athletes and Olympians do.

“At 11 or 12 we should show them how hard it is to become a player and how to eat because we’re fighting against genetics and our national diet when too many people are dying in their fifties from heart disease.

“We’ve got to get body fats low so they don’t look 12 years old when they’re 25. We look at players from other international teams playing international football at 18 and 19 with A frame physiques and we ask why we’re not like that. We’re just not. We like pie suppers.

“We’ve got to educate them. All the way along, it goes hand in glove. How do we get our kids at 11 to become full international footballers like Shelley?

“Shelley talks about football as her passion since eight and I was the same at Queens Park when I played and had a job as well. As parents you can’t let them off the hook. You have to start the education process.

Read more: Shelley Kerr open to return to men's game in future despite being appointed Scotland women's manager

“My job is to offer help to the clubs in any way that I can in terms of coaching and in the sports science, medical, psychology, diet and nutrition side of it as well.”

Mackay added: “Everyone realises it is our duty to make sure our youngsters know how hard it is to become a professional footballer. Boys and girls have to realise what it takes to become elite at your sport.

“The onus is on us, the coaches and the parents as well to make them know the standards it takes and how hard they have to work to get there.”