Arsenal exciting young forward Bukayo Saka has been named in England’s 33-man provisional squad for this summer’s European Championship.
Saka is the only Arsenal player Gareth Southgate has selected in his 33-man roster which was unveiled on Tuesday.
The youngster has been integral to Mikel Arteta’s plans at the Emirates, making 32 appearances in the 2020/21 Premier League season registering five goals and four assists.
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Capable of playing at left-back, central midfield and as a winger, Saka is a versatile player which Southgate can use to deal with a mixture of opponents.
Despite this, the England manager has only deployed Saka as a left midfielder in each of his four senior caps.
Given the 19-year-old will be up against the likes of Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Jack Grealish in starting on the wings, Saka’s exploits in a range of positions for Arsenal suggest Southgate would be better suited to playing him elsewhere.
Saka has four senior caps for England, all under Southgate, starting on three occasions while coming off the bench in the 2-0 Nations League defeat to Belgium in November 2020.
He made his first appearance starting in England’s 3-0 win over Wales in October before scoring on his second outing in another 3-0 friendly win over Ireland a month later.
Saka withdrew from England’s most recent World Cup qualifying squad in late March due to injury due to an ongoing issue with his right hamstring.
England’s 33-Man provisional squad for Euro 2020:
Goalkeepers: Dean Henderson (Manchester United), Sam Johnstone (West Bromwich Albion), Jordan Pickford (Everton), Aaron Ramsdale (Sheffield United).
Defenders: Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool), Ben Chilwell (Chelsea), Conor Coady (Wolves), Ben Godfrey (Everton), Reece James (Chelsea), Harry Maguire (Manchester United), Tyrone Mings (Aston Villa), Luke Shaw (Manchester United), John Stones (Manchester City), Kieran Trippier (Atletico Madrid), Kyle Walker (Manchester City), Ben White (Brighton & Hove Albion).
Midfielders: Jude Bellingham (Borussia Dortmund), Jordan Henderson (Liverpool), Jesse Lingard (Manchester United), Mason Mount (Chelsea), Kalvin Phillips (Leeds), Declan Rice (West Ham), James Ward-Prowse (Southampton).
Forwards: Dominic Calvert-Lewin (Everton), Phil Foden (Manchester City), Jack Grealish (Aston Villa), Mason Greenwood (Manchester United), Harry Kane (Tottenham), Marcus Rashford (Manchester United), Bukayo Saka (Arsenal), Jadon Sancho (Borussia Dortmund), Raheem Sterling (Manchester City), Ollie Watkins (Aston Villa).
17 Comments
What of papa Abraham?
Ndi choosing England means you will be ignored. Ngwa Bukayo Saka will regret picking England ahead of Nigeria. Ndi dual nationality Nigerian players should only always pick Nigeria, where una dey? Hatred is like Akamu. Akamu no be custard, Akamu no be cornflakes. Carry go Saka. Choose with your heart and head. Losers United FC, you lose. Make I comot here before the mess begin to smell.
@ Eldridge Cleaver, hahahaha… How come you glorify everything England, yet claiming to be SE fans. You are forever out supporting all English born Nigeria players that have trampled their muddy feet on nigeria. But go gun blazing with scathing comments against those that are making so much sacrifice to put smiles on Nigeria Fans faces. I am sure Iwobi would have been getting a lot of support from you, in this his trying moments had he chose England. We read in btw the lines brodaman. Never a hard feeling.
Glory Brodaman, Tufiakwa! A whole Great Britain with 4 nations that between them haven’t won a tea cup over 50 years. English football is overrated and over marketed. Please make England park well joor. That said, all dual nationality players should be free to choose whatever country they want. It is a matter of personal choice. Fans should learn to respect this.
Yeah @ Eldridge Cleaver. The support @ trying times offers much as well as gives credence to where loyalty lies. Lol
Lol…we are humans man. We all love good tides. They chose England over Nigeria, and it is expected Nigerians will bash them….and they know this too. So, i don’t understand your point. However, we can still preach that the guys still be loved and left alone to make their choices. But definitely, there is only a degree to which this can be realized. All in all, i wish Saka a decent career with the three lions.
Maybe we have been overrating this guys,they may not be as good as we thought.
This is the best time for Gernot Rohr amd his handlers to make overtures to Fikayo Tomori so he can reconsider his stance and dorn our proud GREEN and WHITE jersey.
With Balogun ageing and Semi Ajayi uninspiring; Fiks, Omeruo, Troost, Awaziem and Adarabioyo (depending on what happens to his career development in the coming months) should be counted upon to marshall our defence for the Cameroon Afcon and WC qualifiers
For what????! Why should he go after someone who rejected us and rubbed it on our face???? It’ll be very stupid for anyone to nurse such a horrible idea. He should stay where he is. We ain’t short of players abeg.
It’s not like we lack his quality in the present eagles. We currently have about 3 Fikayos.
And our proud 3lion (“abraham”) is missing from the list!!! Lol…… Karma o, abeg take it easy with this guy, the torment is becoming too much. Lol. They have used and dumped him in the bin. Pls, can someone help retrieve his twitter handle password? It seems he’s lost it.. His brother (Tomori) is currently wandering in the wilderness of international football, at least that one get small sense go dy play for ac Milan, if not, him for hear am. hehehehe.
These guys never learn….in international football quantity is better than quality…I prefer to go to numerous world cups,afcons,and other tournaments with Nigeria than playing a couple of games for England…look at Abraham and fikayo now…. Even saka was just picked because he blew up in a time close to the tournament period just like dele Alli did in the last world cup and euro…Once his form dwindles abit after this time or other young English players crop up after this tournament it’s bye bye to national team for saka….If saka makes 20 caps for England then he is Legend.
I wish Saka the best . And honestly , we should respect his decisions rather than raising curses at him . There are lots of players far more talented than Saka within and outside the shores of Nigeria who are willing to play for the SE provided NFF show how much they need them and also how they themselves need the national team.
Tomori and Adarabioyo have to think about their future in the national team. Esp Tomori who said NFF never came to him . Inspite his efforts at Milan , he’s not considered in the English 3 lions . Does Rohr and NFF need him? Well time will tell.
I need the NFF to sppee up Obie Echaria, Michael Olise, Ademola Lookmam et Al national team switch . We need them seriously.
You see now
Tammy Abraham – No
Dele Alli – No
Fikayo Tomori – No
Ross Barkley – No
Tosin Adarabioyo – No
How I wish these talents could have learnt from the likes of John Fasanu, Shola Ameobi, Agbolahor,
Shola Ameobi is not part of the list bro, he waited for Nigeria until he was called upon when he is almost 30 in 2014 world cup.
Meanwhile, I wouldn’t blame this guys too much, does Nigeria really worth dying for?
But wait o, does it mean England can’t even include Tammy Abraham in a 33 men list?
This is shit…..
@Gattuso,why not spare SHOLA AMEOBI. …..he played for us nd even played at 2014 world cup…it was so important to him that he invited his families to brasil for the games