BOWEN NEEDS EMOTIONAL RESCUE FOR PROUD FAMILY
BY
JARROD BOWEN will kickstart his bid to seal a World Cup call-up with England this afternoon — one that he knows would put his dad Sam and the rest of their family through the emotional wringer again.
The 25-year-old West Ham star got his first taste of international
football at the end of last season when England boss Gareth Southgate handed him his first cap against Hungary.
And so overcome by Bowen’s success were the
rest of his family that most burst into tears – and one, in particular, could barely get his words out.
“Everyone just started crying,” said Bowen. “We were all out for lunch — my girlfriend, my brother, my mate, my sister — at a little cafe called The Flying Dutchman in Leominster.
“My girlfriend knew because I was walking around all in shock and when I told my brother, he walked out the restaurant because he was crying.
“My mum was at work and my dad wouldn’t speak to me because every time he picked the phone up, I said, ‘Hello, you all right?’, and he said, ‘No’.
“I had to ring him about five times because I could just tell he was in bits.
When I saw him later, we were in his old truck — it’s battered, an 05 plate — and he was crying his eyes out saying, ‘I can’t believe it, this is the truck we used to go to local games in. Look at you now — you’ve just been called up to England. I can’t take my hat off to you enough’.
“I don’t know how he’d be if I got to the World Cup, that would be another one again.
“So I know the next three or four months are really massive in terms of my career. Being involved in the summer was great, but coming away from it left me wanting more in terms of being in the next squad – not just be in the one squad and then that’s it. I want to be in the one in September and then the World Cup, so that’s my aim, that’s my desire.”
While Bowen’s family were lost for words by his call-up, his Hammers teammates certainly weren’t.
Laughing, he added: “The first couple of them when me and Declan Rice were talking were like, ‘Ooh, watch out, it’s the England boys together’, but they were all buzzing for me.”
Bowen’s rise from non-League footballer to international star has been rapid and that comes with added pressure.
“I haven’t chosen myself in my fantasy league because my price has gone up,” he said. “My barber told me I’ve gone up £2million – so that’s a big pressure in itself.”