I want to lead it like Beckham
JAMES WARD- PROWSE has lofty ambitions and is determined to follow his heroes Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard and David Beckham by one day captaining his country.
The Southampton midfi elder has already achieved that aim with England Under- 21s but now the next hurdle is to break into Roy Hodgson’s senior squad and eventually become skipper of the national side.
The son of a barrister, Ward- Prowse spoke eloquently in the aftermath of his winning goal against Germany and says he is desperate to become captain of England.
“I hope so,” said the 20- year- old. “I feel like I would be able to do it. All of my role models – Gerrard, Lampard and Beckham – were leaders and that’s the sort of person I like to think I am. If I can be an inspiration to others that will be geat.
“There are people at Southampton showing me the way and I am learning all the time about being a leader.
“We have a fanstasic captain in Jose Fonte and I have learned a lot from him. Hopefully he can lead me down the right path.”
Ward- Prowse skippered Gareth Southgate’s Young Lions in Monday’s come- from- behind 3- 2 victory over Germany at Middlesbrough and said he was delighted to be handed the armband.
If England’s sterling second- half display is anything to go by, then the jury is no longer out on Ward- Prowse as he looked every inch a senior captain of the future.
“It’s more about being a leader on the pitch, trying to determine how the game is going and looking to change things depending on events,” he said.
“You must lead with your actions, be the best you can and work hard. If you can do that you obviously set a great example for the rest of the lads to follow. It was very pleasing to get the goal, but for me the highlight was the team’s performance. The way we played was fantastic and we showed great character to come back and win.
“It was lovely to captain the team. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do. I did it in the second half in San Marino last season, but this time I had the armband from the start.
“It’s a great honour and something I can see myself doing in the future.”
In recent months Southgate’s England have beaten three of this summer’s European Championship fi nalists, Portugal, the Czech Republic and Germany.
And while Ward- Prowse was satisfi ed with the victories, he still delivered a note of caution, saying the trio of wins were all merely warm- ups to this summer’s main event.
“It shows we’ve got good quality in the team,” said Ward- Prowse. “But the games will be different in the summer.
“We can take a lot of confi dence into the tournament after our recent results and hopefully we will be successful.
“I am very excited about the summer. We are all eager to play for England. We have great depth in the squad. There is competition all over the place and that’s what you need to be successful.”
Southgate has only lost once in 16 games since taking over two years ago, a friendly setback against France last year, and Ward- Prowse says confi dence is fl ourishing .
“I am sure winning so much recently has helped,” he said. “It’s also down to players putting in the effort and the coaching and the way we are all going about games now.
“We want to get the ball down and play good football, while scoring lots of goals. That’s is something the manager is adamant we must do.”
On the evidence of Monday’s win against one of football’s top nations, and who will be the favourites to land the summer’s Euro title, Southgate is on the right track.