HAMMER BOWEN... FROM PUB TO QATAR?

IN the summer of 2018, Jarrod Bowen watched England’s World Cup bid in Russia with five of his mates in a pub called the The Chequers in Leominster.

This November, those same five mates could well find themselves watching their pal strutting his stuff for the Three Lions at the Qatar World Cup on that same screen. Such has been

Bowen’s rise to prominence in the two years since he joined West Ham that he is now being tipped for a call-up to Gareth Southgate’s squad.

Bowen (right) said: “I probably wouldn’t have said I would play at the top level when I was at Hereford.

“Where I’m from in Hereford, there haven’t been any players who have gone on and played in the Premier League. Or none that spring to mind.

“But there are a lot of stories of people who have come from non-League — Michail Antonio here, he did and now he’s the top scorer for West Ham in the

Premier League. Jamie Vardy, what he has done, is incredible as well and you do use it as motivation when you’re younger.

“The England players in my positions are world class and I kind of haven’t got too invested in it.

“That’s because once you do it is on your mind, and when you play at the weekend it is always at the back of your mind and you’re thinking, ‘I have to play well to try to get recognised’.

Bowen, 25, came up the hard way and nearly quit the game after it went belly up for him at Hereford. But he then got a chance to go to Hull and, in January 2020, he joined West Ham.

He added: “It’s every boy’s dream to play for his country and certainly it’s my dream.”