Promising debutants for England

It has been over a year since Chelsea's Calum Hudson-Odoi made his England debut. The midfielder who came through the youth ranks at Cobham and was born within a bus ride of the club's Stamford Bridge also became one of the 10 youngest players ever to pull on the famous Three Lions shirts.

Hudson-Odoi has long been rated and, true to Gareth Southgate's England plan, he was part of the England under-17 team to win the World Cup in 2017. 

Still, it was a remarkable rise. The teenager was a mere 18 years and 135 days when England took on the Czech Republic on March 22, 2019.

He had also only made 22 appearances for Chelsea, scoring five goals in the process, and becoming the 1,252nd player to turn out for the national team while also being the eighth youngest to do so.

Hudson-Odoi has played twice more since, missing six games through injury or representing under-21s and one where he was on the bench. He would certainly have been expected to be in the squad for Euro 2020 this summer but now all bets are off as to when that will take place.

That it has been moved a year has changed the complexion of the tournament, at least in the eyes of the English press. 

Now they suggest that young players who have not yet nailed down a first-team place at their club could now play their way on to the plane for Southgate's squad.  

New prospects

Manchester City's Phil Foden, Hudson-Odoi's Chelsea teammate Mason Mount, Arsenal's Bukayo Saka and Manchester United's Mason Greenwood have all been mentioned as potential outside shots this summer who are being seen as difference makers come next summer.

Foden is 19, the same age as Hudson-Odoi, and Mount is two years their senior, while Saka and Greenwood are just 18 - and could find themselves making their way on to the youngest player list should international football ever resume.

That's also dependant on club football resuming at some point too. Even if this season does not end, which is a distinct possibility as the days pass, there will need to be a next season before the idea of the Euros can become reality. FIFA Vice President Victor Montagliani has stated that domestic football is a priority and there may be no international football until 2021.

Making your debut as a youngster is not guarantee of a successful international football career. There are those who could reasonably argue that no England player has had such a thing since the country won the FIFA World Cup on home soil in 1966.

England's youngest debutant is a case in point. Theo Walcott was famously called up to Sven-Goran Eriksson's squad for the 2006 World Cup having only made 13 professional appearances and zero since he had signed for Arsenal.

Three weeks after making the squad Walcott made his debut for England against Hungary at Old Trafford, aged 17 years and 74 days. 

He did not play a minute in Germany at the World Cup but would make 47 total appearances for England and is still playing in the English Premier League with Everton.

Wayne Rooney is the next youngest England debutant, playing against Australia in 2003 aged 17 years and 110 days. The teenager moved from Everton to Manchester United in 2004 and would go on to become top scorer for club and country.

Raheem Sterling is the only other modern England player to have made his debut before his 18th birthday. 

The Liverpool player was 17 years and 342 days old when he played against Sweden in November 2012 - a game remembered for Zlatan Ibrahimovic scoring all four for the hosts, including an overhead kick from near halfway, in what would be Ryan Shawcross' only England cap.

Sterling, who had only made 20 appearances for Liverpool at that point, has since become first choice for club (where he moved to Manchester City in 2015) and country - even going on to captain his country.

Glorious history

While he might be the third-youngest post-war player, two of England's earliest footballers were younger than Sterling when they made their debut.

Clapham Rovers' James Prinsep was 17 years and 252 days when he played for England against Scotland on April 5, 1879. 

Prinsep would play no more games for his country but held the youngest international record until Rooney's debut. He also held the record of the youngest player to play in an FA Cup Final, playing against Old Etonians in 1879. 

Incidentally, that record was broken within a month of Rooney making his England debut in another game Rooney played in - Millwall's Curtis Weston, a last-minute substitute, breaking the 125-year record.

Thurston "Tot" Rostron, the Darwen player, was also younger than Sterling. Rostron made his debut for England on February 26, 1881, in a game against Wales, aged 17 years and 311 days. He would play once more that same year.

Another pre-war player comes after Sterling too. Clement Mitchell of Upton Park (who would later become West Ham United) played for England against Wales on March 15, 1880. He was 18 years and 24 days.

Some 1,007 other players would play for England between Mitchell and Michael Owen, the next youngest on the list. 

Owen was a teen sensation at Liverpool and had scored 15 goals in his 33 appearances for the club. He made his debut for the national team in February 1998 against Chile, aged 18 years and 59 days. 

Within months Owen was tearing up the World Cup in France, becoming a household name after scoring a breakaway goal against Argentina in the knockouts.

Hudson-Odoi comes next on the list with the top 10 rounded out by Micah Richards and Duncan Edwards.

Richards (18 years and 144 days) and Edwards (18 years and 183 days) were both teenagers when they played in the top flight and both saw their careers cut short. 

Edwards, a Busby Babe who had become the youngest to play in the First Division at 16 in 1953, tragically died in the Munich Air Disaster at 21.


Newspaper headline: Young Lions