Meet the Malta star who used to wear Three Lions

ON Saturday afternoon, after Ebbsfleet’s 0-0 draw with Gateshead, the jokes could really begin. ‘You realise when you play England, it will be September, so Harry Kane is going to be lethal?’ comes one voice from the home dressing room. ‘You will have to do bloody well to stop him,’ says another. Sam Magri laughs. ‘They’ve been trying to wind me up for weeks,’ Magri says. It’s not often a non-League footballer plays international football, so you can forgive Magri’s Ebbsfleet team-mates for overdoing it a little. Magri, 23, is in Malta’s squad for their World Cup 2018 qualifiers against England and Scotland. The England match at the National Stadium in Ta’ Qali on Friday will also be a reunion for the centre back: six years ago he helped England reach the last eight of the Under 17 World Cup. Magri (right) scored from the spot to down Argentina on penalties in the last 16, but could not prevent England losing 3-2 to Germany. Nathaniel Chalobah, Jordan Pickford and Raheem Sterling started alongside Magri and all three were in England’s squad, but Pickford has since withdrawn due to injury. ‘I used to room with Raheem,’ he says. ‘You could always tell how good he was going to be. He was lightning quick and he’d just run past players. It’s weird, I had not seen them for years but saw Nathaniel this summer with Ebbsfleet in Portugal (on a pre-season tour). I’ve known Jordan for a while because we made our debuts for the England Under 16s against Wales in 2009. I have some great memories of Mexico. Beating Argentina and scoring my penalty was really special. I played 22 games for the Under 17s, it was a really together group and we all wanted to develop and become the best players we could be.’ But the World Cup in 2011 did not turn out to be a springboard for Magri, who had been at Portsmouth since he was 11, and frustrating spells at QPR and Crystal Palace saw Magri drop into non-League with Dover in 2015, when he also adopted his grandfather’s Malta at international level. ‘Malta had been asking me to play for them since I was 17,’ he says. ‘It’s one of the best decisions I’ve made.’ He moved to Ebbsfleet in June, helping them go 33 league games unbeaten, but will settle for a chance to learn this Friday. ‘Nobody is expecting anything from us, but you’re always going to learn.’