Mason Greenwood wants to 100% play for England, proclaims Gareth Southgate
Mason Greenwood has earned one cap for England
|England boss Gareth Southgate has quashed any concerns that Mason Greenwood could take advantage of his dual nationality and play for Jamaica instead. This comes after Southgate decided that Greenwood didn’t need to feature for the England U21s with him not called up for the international break.
With the international break around the corner, it has seen Premier League clubs refuse to let quite a few players leave for the break. That is because a large portion of them play for countries that are a part of England’s red list which has concerned UEFA and FIFA especially given the fact that the upcoming international break involves World Cup qualifiers.
That is not the same case for the England national team but despite that Gareth Southgate hasn’t called up Mason Greenwood and has decided that the 20-year-old didn’t need to be a part of the U21s. That has seen many fans concerned that Greenwood might consider switching nationalities and play for Jamacia instead but Southgate has refuted that and instead confirmed that there is a plan in place for the forward.Â
“We’ve got some very exciting attacking players, many of whom aren’t yet the finished article. Normally, I don’t get involved in the under-21s but he’s beyond that. I want to take a little bit more control of his development internationally. The dual nationality is a bit of a red herring. He 100% wants to play for England and there is no suggestion there is anything else there,” Southgate said, reported the Guardian.
The England boss has, however, stuck close to the squad that featured at the Euro 2020 which is understandable given the way they performed at the tournament. Furthermore, with fourteen months left for the World Cup, it also makes sense which saw Southgate admit that he wants the team to evolve and figure out a way to do more with the current team. He further added that the Three Lions also need to have a few tough games so that they can figure out how to deal with different challenges.
“We are constantly wanting to evolve and part of that is some of younger players getting more experiences. In the biggest games, retaining possession under that intense pressure is something that we feel we can definitely be better at. One of the difficulties is you don’t always face those types of matches in between those big tournaments.
“We’ll have some tough games for sure, different types of challenge, but if we can nail the qualification for Qatar it is important that the matches we have after that, the level of them poses those sorts of questions. That’s why we’ve enjoyed the Nations League really, because although people question the extra competition, which I understand, the level of the games has been good for us.Â
“To play Belgium twice last autumn and Denmark, we learned a lot from those games and you do want that level of opponent as regularly as you can to improve the level of your own team,” he added.
