FOR ENGLAND ... AND ONLY FOR ENGLAND
Southgate will just pick players who are devoted to England... so no room for divided loyalties or flags of convenience
GARETH SOUTHGATE has sent a clear tub-thumping message which will stop the flag of convenience debate once and for all.
Southgate insists he only wants English players who are desperate to play for England and will have no room for anyone with divided loyalties.
It comes on the back of England being involved in a series of tugs-of-war including Wilfried Zaha, Alex Iwobi, Adnan Januzaj and Ben Woodburn.
The Football Association have even looked at Steven N’Zonzi, Moussa Dembele and Manuel Almunia was even laughably talked about despite being Spanish and not very good. England’s cricket team has benefitted from a heavy South African influence down the years and Kevin Pietersen even had a Twitter spat with Jack Wilshere after the Arsenal midfielder said Belgian-born Januzaj should not be called up.
Raheem Sterling was born in Jamaica and only moved to England when he was five so the lines have become blurred.
World champions Germany went to the 2010 World Cup with nearly half of their squad born on foreign shores.
But Southgate has laid down clear guidelines as to how he sees the make-up of England – even though less than a third of players in the Premier League are English and the talent pool appears to be getting smaller.
He said: “I’m English and proud to be English and I think part of your identity as a national team has to be pride in the shirt.
“So, the commitment has to come from the player.
“When you’re building an international team, Jermain Defoe (below) is a classic example – his life has been a desire to play for England right from Under-16s all the way through. I don’t think if you had approached him later to play for someone else that he’d have done it. That’s where I was with it – I didn’t get capped until I was 25 and I had no interest in playing for anyone else.
“We’ve always got to have in our mind that there’s a hell of a lot of youngsters in our system, from 15s up who are dual nationality or more. So there’s a constant dilemma.
“Woodburn would be an example, he had a training camp with us, two with Wales and you run the risk, when you leave players out of squads, of them going across to another country.
“But in the end I have to focus on players who are desperate to play for England.”
Liverpool’s 17-year-old whiz-kid Woodburn (right) was
born in Chester but Wales moved quickly to get him.
Iwobi played for England at under-16s, 17s and 18s before choosing Nigeria despite Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger trying to push the FA into calling him up.
Former England boss Sam Allardyce admitted during his brief stint in charge that he looked at getting Sevilla’s French midfielder N’Zonzi while Celtic striker Dembele is eligible for a British passport through residency and has yet to be called up by France.
Zaha won two caps in friendlies for England and also played 13 times for the under21s but chose Ivory Coast.
But Southgate insists that he should not need to sell England to players – and they should be proud to wear the shirt. He added: “It’s different to a club. If you feel that internal 100 percent passion for playing for England, then I’m not sure it’s for me to sell that to you.
“It should be your desire to do it. Although I’m always willing to sit down with players, it should be them coming to us.
“I don’t think it’s the same as a club where you’re trying to sell the benefits of the club and you’re competing against other clubs.
“I do get that we are competing against other countries and players want to feel valued at all times.
“But the inherent desire of wanting to play for your country is the most important thing if you want to be successful.”