Senior glory may have eluded the Three Lions so far, but this is a golden age in England’s youth. In 2017, the English became only the second nation to win FIFA’s two men’s youth championships, taking the world crown at Under-17 and Under-20 level. Six years later, a team featuring three of the U-17 title winners won their first U-21 European Championship for their country since 1984.
England head coach Gareth Southgate was watching and must have wondered if any of these rising stars could make an impact in Germany next year as he tries to finally get over the senior tournament hump at Euro 2024. He’s hardly missing to youthful stars in his own senior team – the likes of Jude Bellingham, Bukayo Saka and Marc Guehi would all have been considered for Lee Carsley’s youth squad – but a little tournament-winning nous could go a long way.
Here are seven players who could make the breakthrough.
Emily Smith Rowe
Smith Rowe, England’s only U-21 player to have been capped by the senior squad, would certainly have had his eye on Southgate in European Championship qualifiers at the start of last season. However, a confluence of injuries and the form of others saw the 22-year-old barely feature for Arsenal, with just 161 minutes in the Premier League. He bettered that number in Romania and Georgia, even though he was one of several forwards rotated in and out of the XI by Carsley.
For Smith Rowe, the calculation is simple if he wants to go to Germany for Euro 2024: regain a significant role in Mikel Arteta’s team. Assuming Arsenal continue on their current trajectory, even fringe players in their squad will receive the same attention as someone like Manchester City’s Kalvin Phillips. However, there will still be the presence of Marcus Rashford and Jack Grealish in Southgate’s team. If someone appropriated even just one of those two, that would be special indeed.
Levi Colwill
If England are blessed with attacking midfield options, the same isn’t so true on the left side of central defence, where Harry Maguire has clung to a starting spot on the international scene solely because of his form. He can hardly get a game for Manchester United. If that doesn’t change, could Southgate be tempted to watch Colwill, who trained with the senior team before traveling to the European Championships?
At his best on loan last season to Brighton, Colwill was an imperious young centre-back. He carries or passes the ball onto the field at his leisure, drawing the opponent’s press and exploiting the open spaces. If he does the same in a Chelsea shirt next season, he could see himself not only in Southgate’s side, but maybe even in his XI. That’s how good he is.
Morgan Gibbs White
Alongside Smith Rowe and Angel Gomes, Gibbs-White has carved a place in England youth history, a World Champion at U-17 level and now a European Champion at U-21 level. It’s an open debate who was the Young Lions’ best player this summer, but their most important was undoubtedly the Nottingham Forest man, who reveled in the responsibility Carsley placed on him.
Could he transfer his starring role with Forest and the England U-21s to the Southgate side? The game almost certainly wouldn’t go through him, but if the Three Lions stick to a 4-3-3, you could imagine Gibbs-White bringing a creative spark to midfield alongside the progression and physicality of Declan Rice and Jude Bellingham.
James Traford
England became the first team ever to win the U-21 European Championship without conceding a goal, thanks in no small part to the heroics of their goalkeeper. The headlines were all about Trafford after he saved a 99th-minute penalty, just as he predicted he would before the game.
“I told everyone this morning I was going to save a pen,” he said amid the festivities at the final whistle. “I knew I was going to save. It was actually quite easy. I told all my friends back home that I was going to save one.”
Trafford sustained his swagger throughout the tournament, conceding shots worth 4.29 expected goals on Wyscout’s model and not being beaten once. There will be plenty of chances for him to prove this wasn’t just another hot streak with the 20-year-old expected to leave Manchester City for Burnley now that the tournament is over. A £19 million price tag is sure to draw attention to the youngster, but he rather seems to be enjoying it.
Anthony Gordon
That Gordon was named UEFA’s Player of the Tournament is impressive enough, all the more so that he won the award after playing out of position. Newcastle’s £30 million man is a more natural left winger, but in the absence of Folarin Balogun, now a senior USA international, he led the line with aplomb. Gordon was less of a goalkeeper, more of a wandering striker who could drift from flank to flank to aid the build-up.
“He played at a high level throughout the tournament, scoring two goals and getting one assist,” the UEFA panel said, with Gordon himself insisting the award could have gone to half a dozen of his teammates.
However, he will face a challenge to establish himself when he returns to club level, especially with Harvey Barnes sure to join him on the flanks at St. James Park.
Jacob Ramsey
A key player for Carsley before breaking his metatarsal bone in the quarter-final victory over Portugal, Ramsey will now be sidelined for up to 10 weeks, as big a blow to Aston Villa as it was to the player himself. The 22-year-old made 35 appearances at club level last season, scoring six times and providing seven assists. He and Gibbs-White both hope to use this upcoming season to carve out a spot for themselves as one of Southgate’s more attacking midfielders. However, there are so many…
Curtis Jones
That becomes all the more evident when you consider the depth of England’s young midfield talent bee Liverpool alone. This spot could have gone to Harvey Elliott, the youngest player on the squad, who logged 168 minutes on the tournament. For club and country, he will compete with Jones for a spot in the 4-3-3.
Jones showed impressive versatility throughout this tournament, saving his best performances for last, as he won man of the match awards in both the semi-finals and the final. His 94 per cent pass completion, the highest of any midfielder at the tournament, points to a player who can do the one thing England have struggled to do at all levels in the past: dictate the terms of a game, take air out of it when they are the lead or controlling territory when they have to chase the game. If he can keep the starting spot he won at the end of last season at Liverpool — no mean feat given the arrival of Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai this summer — he seems as likely as anyone to break into Southgate’s plans for Euro 2024.