BELGIUM DEC OF CARDS
Rice: I was watching lads play ’Wolf’... boss said I would be captain of Lions on my 50th cap... I was SPEECHLESS
DECLAN RICE has come up trumps by winning the biggest honour of his career.
Rice said he was speechless after being made captain to mark his 50th England cap, meaning he will lead out his country in the friendly with Belgium at Wembley tonight.
The Arsenal midfielder was told on Sunday night as he watched his England team-mates play the card game Wolf that he would captain the Three Lions and revealed there was an awkward moment when manager Gareth Southgate gave him the news.
Rice said: “It was a funny setting. The staff all play a card game called Wolf. I wasn’t playing, I like to watch, and Gareth came up to me while I was sat there and spoke to me about being captain.
“We kind of had an awkward stare at each other! I was speechless. I really didn’t know what to say. I just stood up, shook his hand and gave him a hug and said: ‘Thank you so much.’ Since I’ve come into the side he’s put his trust and belief in me. To now win 50 caps and captain the side...well, I’m speechless.”
Rice, who joined Arsenal from West Ham for £105million last
July, has played at a World Cup and in a Euros final. So for him to be left completely stunned by being given the armband just shows what it means to him.
Hardly surprising when you consider that he graduated at West Ham, a club that produced the greatest England captain of them all in the late Bobby Moore, who lifted the World Cup in 1966.
But Rice – who becomes the fifth-fastest player to reach 50 caps after Marcus Rashford, Wayne Rooney, Michael Owen and Raheem Sterling – is worried about his pre-match captain’s address.
“It’s crazy,” he said. “To be in the same bracket as those players is a real honour. Rooney,
Owen, Raz, who’s racked up so many caps, Rash as well. It’s happened so fast. I don’t know where the time has gone. When I was coming through at 18, 19, the older heads used to say to me: ‘Your career goes so fast.’
“I used to look at them and think: ‘What’re you going on about?’ But now I’m 25, time is really going fast, 50 caps, loads of Premier League games, I’m just trying to enjoy every minute of it and be the best I can be. Tomorrow is going to be a real pinch-me moment for me so I’m really looking forward to it.”
It is five years since Rice made his England debut against the Czech Republic, having switched his allegiance from the Republic of Ireland, for whom he played three times.
He admits he would one day love to captain Arsenal but was very respectful to current skipper Martin Odegaard. He also said that he believes playing for England has made him a better player and person – as has his time at Arsenal.
The former West Ham captain (below, with Southgate yesterday, and, bottom, in training) admitted that it “blew his mind” when he arrived at
Arsenal as he struggled to cope with the extra fitness, tactics and Mikel Arteta’s demands while on his new club’s US tour
‘Since I’ve come into the side he’s put his trust and belief in me’
last year. He says he asked questions galore of Arteta and his staff and says he thought about his game non-stop.
Rice told an amusing anecdote about England team-mate John Stones, who he meets when Arsenal travel to Manchester City on Sunday afternoon.
He added: “The first day I came here I saw John Stones and he didn’t even know they were playing us next! When he’s away from football he likes to be with his family and switch off and I get that, he likes to take one game at a time. I said ‘big game next’ and John said: ‘Who are you playing?’ I said: ‘We’ve got you lot!’ He said: ‘Oh yeah!’
“The first three weeks of preseason at Arsenal were the toughest. We played a game against Man United in preseason and I didn’t have a good game at all. It was in that game we really tried to work on how we wanted to play and I really struggled.
“The best thing I did was to ask questions. I didn’t want to just sit in silence and not improve. I knew with the price tag that there would be expectations but I’ve got myself into a good place.”
‘Tomorrow is going to be a real pinch-me moment for me’