KIM Little bodyswerves the assertion that she is Scotland's only world class footballer but doesn't deviate from her expectation that the nation's women's team will reach a major finals before the men ever do. This unassuming 25-year-old, raised in Mintlaw, Aberdeenshire, has quietly become one of our greatest sporting exports. Having ticked off England with a trophy-laden spell with Arsenal Ladies, and the USA with her successful ongoing attachment to Seattle Reign, now it is time to hold another continent in her thrall. In a week or so, Little will pack her bags for a whistlestop loan spell with W-League outfit Melbourne City. It is the kind of temporary arrangement usually reserved for the globetrotting world stars of the men's game like David Beckham or Frank Lampard.

Where Little really wants to go, though, is Netherlands in the summer of 2017, for the finals of the Uefa Women's Euro. Speaking of world class players, many of them of all sexes and from many minor nations have agonisingly failed to make it to these summer showpieces over the years but if ever there was a chance for Little to experience that Gareth Bale moment and inspire Anna Signeul's side to that big breakthrough moment then this, surely, is it.

After a victory in Slovenia on the group's opening matchday (courtesy of a Little hat-trick), now it is the turn of Belarus to take on the Scots in Motherwell next Friday night, the first part of a double header which also includes a trip to Skopje to face Macedonia. While miracle football nation Iceland are the highest-ranked side in the group, at No 19, the finals have been expanded from 12 to 16 teams, meaning the eight group winners and the six best runners up all qualify. Scotland can call themselves the 20th best team in the world and the 11th best team in Europe so Little would take it rather personally if they can't make it.

"No-one has ever said that to me," Little told the Herald Sport modestly. "I don't think that really comes into it. We all want to qualify for major tournaments. It doesn't matter whether you are a goalkeeper, a forward or whatever, everyone would love to get there and everyone would deserve it if we can do it. I'm not really someone who feels extra pressure.

"But we have drawn a really good group, probably better than we ever have done," she added. "Iceland are obviously a great team and will give us hard games but we hope that we can pick up all the points we should from the teams ranked lower than us and that will hopefully lead us to get us to the Euros.

"It would be a huge disappointment if we don't make it, considering we are ranked one of the top 16 teams in Europe. It is definitely a far more achievable campaign than any other we have been in. But we are not complacent - we know we need to go out and get the results, then hopefully come the end of next year we will be on our way to the Netherlands. Getting to a major finals would be a huge leap forward for us in terms of developing the sport in this country. We have been so close the last two times but just fallen short. It would be a great thing for young girls to see a Scottish women's team playing on that stage."

Little's close control and touch were honed in mixed gender teams at Mintlaw Academy but suffice to say a few of the finer points in the failed campaign of Gordon Strachan's side were lost on her. "I am never really in Scotland and I haven't really been able to sit down and watch one match right through," he said. "It is obviously very disappointing, though, especially when you consider how well Wales and Northern Ireland have done in qualifying. Obviously their focus will be the next campaign now but I think any nation with a footballing culture like ours should expect to be at major tournaments."

So busy has Little been recently - her Seattle Reign side finished the regular season with the best record only to lose in the play-off final to Kansas City FC for the second successive year - that this former FA and Premier League player of the year, NWSL League MVP and NWSL golden boot winner also admits she is going into her Antipodean adventure somewhat blind. She has never even previously been to Australia but her three month, 12-game season with expansion team Melbourne City, at the height of the Australian summer, will be another life experience.

"We get together on Tuesday afternoon, play on Friday, then we go to Macedonia the week after and then it is out to Australia for me," said Little, the scorer of 44 goals in her 108 caps to date. "I have never been out to Australia before or that part of the world and I would love to see it. The season in the USA is not so long as some other seasons, the Australian season kind of fits into it. I thought about doing it last year but chose not to. I have been told Melbourne is a great city by a load of people but I don't know too much about the league. The Australia team is very strong, though, and three or four of them play with Melbourne."

Little has, of course, graced one major finals already, one of three Scots in total called up for Team GB team at the London 2012 Olympics - something she looks back on with fondness despite all the political football being played around that time. "What goals do I have left?" she asks. "Just to go out and play football. To keep getting better. To go out there every day and win."