From Emile Smith Rowe to Lewis Hall, London’s booming production line at heart of England’s future
s Emile Smith Rowe and Noni Madueke posed for a photo with their European Under-21 Championship winners’ medals on Saturday, it offered a reminder of the influence London has on the success of England teams.
Smith Rowe was born in Croydon and joined Arsenal’s Hale End academy aged 10 after being spotted playing for his local team in Bromley.
Barnet-born Madueke spent three years in Crystal Palace’s academy before moving to Tottenham, PSV Eindhoven and then Chelsea in January.
“Winning with your real-life brother… priceless”, is how Madueke captioned the photo on his Instagram account.
Both Smith Rowe and Madueke have been England internationals since U-16 level. In Georgia on Saturday, one was substituted for the other as England U-21s secured a dramatic 1-0 win against Spain to be crowned European champions.
The starting XI featured players born in Hammersmith and Edmonton, while there were squad members from Waltham Forest, Chertsey and Welwyn Garden City.
Only eight of England’s 23 can compete at the next U-21 Euros in Slovakia in two years’ time. Smith Rowe, Morgan Gibbs-White and player of the tournament Anthony Gordon will be too old.
But the next cycle of U-21s will bring an even bigger influx of players from the capital.
Many from this summer’s U-20s World Cup squad, who won the U-19 Euros last summer, will move up to join Lee Carsley’s U-21s.
Those players could include Londoners Matthew Cox (Brentford), Brooke Norton-Cuffy (Arsenal) and Dane Scarlett (Tottenham), as well as Alfie Devine (Tottenham) and Bashir Humphreys, Carney Chukwuemeka and Harvey Vale (all Chelsea).
Meanwhile promotion could be on the cards for U-19s Lewis Hall, Charlie Webster (both Chelsea), Reuell Walters, Amario Cozier-Duberry (both Arsenal) and Divin Mubama (West Ham).
Juventus’s Samuel Iling-Junior and Borussia Dortmund’s Jamie Bynoe-Gittens — two more Londoners — are also set to move up within the England youth system.
Since 2014, England have won a major tournament at every youth level. There were World Cup wins for the U-17s and U-20s in 2017, along with Euro success for the U-17s in 2014, the U-19s twice 2017 and 2022, and now the U-21s for the first time in 39 years.
Yet, there is an argument the win by Carsley’s side this summer is the most seismic victory yet for England’s youth system — and real vindication for St George’s Park, the national football centre which opened in 2012 in a bid to mirror France’s Clairefontaine.
The U-21s are the feeder team for the senior England side. More than that, Carsley adapted after losing his main striker Folarin Balogun on the eve of the tournament when the Arsenal forward switched his international allegiance to the USA.
Dane Scarlett is another young star coming through at Tottenham
/ REUTERSCameron Archer was the only recognised striker in the squad, but Carsley used an inventive 4-4-2 system with playmakers Gordon and Gibbs-White as makeshift forwards.
Carsley also played midfielder James Garner at right-back and conventional right-back Max Aarons at left-back. It worked a treat. England won every game, playing some brilliant football, scoring 11 times and not conceding a goal. It was a tournament in which the coaching at St George’s Park came to the fore. England’s players produced progressive football, not limited by the positions they were playing.
Phil Foden, Mason Mount, Jadon Sancho and Reece James are just some of players to taste success at youth level and step up to the senior team.
Gareth Southgate watched on from the stands on Saturday, and thoughts now inevitably turn to which of these U-21s might graduate, with Euro 2024 on the horizon.
Gibbs-White, Chelsea defender Levi Colwill will be targeting a place in a senior squad before too long, along with goalkeeper James Trafford after his last-minute penalty heroics.
Below them, the next talented crop of U-21s are ready to move up as the production line of talent continues.
