English Players Abroad

With England having not won the World cup since 1966, many feel as though that is down to players not learning their trade abroad. One of those people is Pep Guardiola who believes that if more players played abroad it would help the national team and that the Premier Leagues high wages is what discourages players from challenging themselves abroad.

 Recently a few young players have transferred abroad to learn a different style of football and to challenge themselves. The high profile examples include Jadon Sancho who transferred from Manchester City to Borussia Dortmund. Whilst Ademola Lookman is on loan from Everton at RB Lezpig and West Ham’s Reece Oxford is on loan at Borussia Monchengladbach. However, I feel the best example of an English player playing abroad and benefiting is that of Eric Dier.

Eric Dier started playing for Sporting Lisbon’s academy when his parents moved there when he was seven. Dier once said ‘I think of myself as a little bit Portuguese but I still consider myself English,’. ‘My dream is to play for England but no-one has ever been in touch about representing them. I don’t know if they know about me and maybe it’s got something to do with me being abroad. I guess it’s hard to come out and watch my games.’ Interestingly as soon as Dier got his move to Tottenham he got his first call up to the international squad.

I believe that now Gareth Southgate is in charge he will start looking at these players playing abroad and genuinley consider giving them a shot if they perform consistently well. I don’t believe these opportunities will come before the 2018 World cup but after that I can see a lot of new faces entering the frame. Gareth Southgate used to manage the England U21 team and is a big fan of young players. Hopefully with players playing abroad and learning football from a different perspective, it can help the national team as a whole. Hopefully in the European championships 2020 we get to see some of these players perform.