England manager Gareth Southgate had called up four Chelsea players to be part of the national team.
Southgate has enlisted Tammy Abraham, Ross Barkley, Mason Mount and Fikayo Tomori to play for the European Championship qualifying matches against the Czech Republic on Friday. They are also included in the squad that will play Bulgaria on Monday. The England boss has clearly been closely paying attention to the stellar performances of these young Englishmen.
Two other Chelsea players, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Callum Hudson-Odoi, have been selected by the manager before and are eager to make a return to national duties depending on their condition. If the two can make a return to the national squad the number of Blues players on the Three Lions could then increase to six. And if this happens, the number of England internationals playing for the Blues would match the number of Chelsea players playing for the flag 13 years ago.
Back then, Chelsea provided a large chunk of the Three Lions team under Steve McClaren in 2006. He called up Ashley Cole, Wayne Bridge, Joe Cole, Frank Lampard, John Terry and Shaun Wright-Phillips. Terry skippered the team and it was his sixth as team captain of the Three Lions. He is now Aston Villa’s manager. Of course, Lampard is the big boss of Chelsea.
This is the first time that Mount and Tomori had been called up for national duties. Both are very excited to don the Three Lions uniform and play for the flag. Abraham, on the other hand, had his first England call up on September 2016. He played for England’s Under 21. Barkley likewise had his first call up in 2008 playing for the country’s Under 16 side. He was also included in 2009, 2010, 2013 for the Three Lion’s Under 17, Under 19 and Under 20 (Under 21) respectively.
