🚨🚨| Kobbie Mainoo regularly visits Ghana, he is proud of his family roots and is keeping his options open, but he's been advised to lean towards England. It is understood he will not make a decision on his international future until it's required and his priority is to… pic.twitter.com/TTFutHyzv7— centredevils. (@centredevils) February 22, 2024 Exclusive: Kobbie Mainoo focusing on United amid England and Ghana interest #mufc https://t.co/yn6ZcFyAA9— Steven Railston (@StevenRailston) February 22, 2024
✔️ Major scoopYesterday, Arena Sport reached out to me about Arsenal's Louis Zečević-John (16) & I brought them in contact with the family. And during our little conversation, his mother confirmed that Louis has accepted our call and will join 🇷🇸 U16 soon. 😎 pic.twitter.com/frju628e0X— Serbian Football Scout (@SerbFootyScout) February 22, 2024
This isn't losing, this is a kid exploring every option available to him before he's required to make a commitment, and every young player with those options should do exactly that.
I wonder what he thinks of the fact that Serbia is one of the most racist countries on earth where racial abuse towards English players at club and international level is commonplace. Another example of an English player representing a nation they would never want to live in
He's probably too young to think about that and even then he's probably not aware of the scale it exists there. I wouldn't be surprised if he thinks England is a more racist nation than Serbia. Widespread racism in Eastern European countries, for example, doesn't gain a tonne of traction in coverage here because people largely "expect" those kinds of attitudes from people of certain nations, whereas a few scumbags being racist to our players on social media after Euro 2020 gets amplified all over the news, and worldwide news at that, and gives the impression it's a widely held view by a sizeable portion of people in the country. I'm not in any way denying we have a problem with racism, we absolutely do, but I often feel that for a multitude of reasons we're made out to be the most racist nation in Western Europe when the reality I think is much different.
Yes indeed, I think we are more the most racism-conscious society in Europe, if not the world, rather than the most racist. You could completely eradicate all racism from English society though and there'd still be just as many people accusing racism. A whole lot more ironically than there ever were in the old banana skin chucking dark days of the past.
Mika Biereth scored another in the Europa league for Sturm Graz tonight. Can add Denmark to the legions of other nations the best young English strikers are representing these days.
Or that he's not good enough to play for England and wants a shot at playing in a major tournament some day.
FIFA has cleared Arthur Okonkwo's nationality switch. The Arsenal Goalkeeper is now eligible to represent Nigeria. He is currently on loan at Wrexham United. pic.twitter.com/y3eAepgoQQ— Inspiration FM Sports (@ifm923sports) February 23, 2024
He went from a League Two loan to Sturm Graz who are playing in European competition back to a League 2 loan this season. Bit of a strange arc. Hasn't been involved with England for 5 years. Nigeria's goalkeeping options look pretty poor to be fair so maybe he's been offered a place in the squad.
There is also talk on social media that Aaron Wan-Bissaka is not eligible to switch to the DRC because he has already switched after his first DRC U-20 appearance before his England U-20 and U-21 career. Is that accurate?
Seems unlikely since that game was a friendly. Can't see a reason why he would've already filed a one-time switch to play for England.
Was thinking about the dual-nationals (only players who've played senior football) that are currently with other countries and how likely they are to ever play for us, either at senior or youth level, and this is what I was thinking on a scale of 1-10: - Elliot Anderson (7/10) - Tom Cannon (7/10) - Omari Hutchinson (6/10) - Mohamed-Ali Cho (5/10) - Fabio Carvalho (4/10) - Noah Ohio (2/10) - Tommy Conway (2/10) - Michael Olise (2/10) All very speculative but it also makes you realise that, for now, we don't have any major dual-national battles that we aren't seemingly (and fingers crossed it remains that way) the player's first choice in at present. I really like Ali Cho's and Hutchinson's potential upsides but at present Olise is the only one here who, for me, stands out to be a real loss so the FA have done a pretty good job on the whole of keeping our better dual-nations in the system for now. We'll lose more that are currently in our system because that's the way it works but all in all things are looking positive on that front.
Shandon Baptiste is still eligible to switch back from Grenada as well. I would say Olise could be one of the biggest loses of an English born player. He could end up winning the PL/CL depending on where he moves to next.
Baptiste will never be anywhere near the level to get a call-up so I didn't bother including him. I think Olise is a loss but it is what it is. I'm not sure there's anything we could have done to stop Olise siding with France so it doesn't bother me.
If we're including players that have already on then yeah, he's probably the biggest talent we've lost but his loss is also very alleviated by the fact we currently have good depth in his position.
I think he was cap-tied in the last break? Might be wrong, but if not he feels like he's already committed to Denmark given how involved he's been in their seniors lately.
Hutchinson has found some form at Ipswich recently, he's certainly good enough for a call up to the u20s in March you would've thought. Personally I'd argue that Olise is the standout on that list in terms of talent, though O'Riley is one to watch as well. Wikipedia says that he only has one cap for Denmark but the chances of him playing for England are 0/10 if you ask me.
The reason I only put Hutchinson at 6/10 is that I feel like he doesn't have much interest in playing youth team football for England. I think eventually, if the call comes in the next few years, he'd play for our senior side but it feels to me like he'd rather play for Jamaica's senior side than our U20s or U21s. If he keeps progressing he has a good shot at the seniors though because left-footed right wingers are at a premium.