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I’ll earn England call... and make dad cry again

JARROD BOWEN can’t wait to start his bid for a World Cup call-up – and put dad Sam and the rest of the family through the emotional ringer 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 the family that most burst into tears – and the old man in particular could barely get a single word out.

“Everyone just started crying,” recalled 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 of 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 obviously great but coming away from it left me wanting more – in terms of being in the next squad, not just having been in the one squad and then that’s it.

“I want to be in the one in September and then the World Cup squad, so that’s what I’m aimed at, that’s my desire.”

While Bowen’s family were lost for words by his call-up, his Hammers team-mates 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 nonleague Hereford United to international star has been rapid, and that comes with added pressure of all sorts.

“I haven’t chosen myself in my fantasy league because my price has gone up,” he revealed. “My barber told me I’ve gone up £2million, so that’s a big pressure in itself.”

And as he and his West Ham pals prepared for their season opener against Manchester City, he insisted there must be no resting on his laurels.

Bowen said: “Being in that England squad made me want everything 10 times more. I want my form to be even higher again this season. The player and person I am, I always set myself targets, and am so self-critical, rather than putting praise on myself.

“That has stood me in good stead so far. This season is about making even more progression.”

Every time my dad picked up the phone I said, ‘Hello, you ali right? ’ and he said ,‘ No ’ . I had to ring him five times because I could just tell that he was in bits