The reason given by the England national team to give Ivan Toney a comeback is his success in Saudi Arabia. The 29-year-old is scoring goals for Al-Ahli and that should sort of qualify him for national team play. – It would be as if Ståle Solbakken had taken me out to play for Norway because some nice pictures had appeared on Instagram of me in a football shirt and perfect hairstyle.
Ivan Toney, who earns £411,000 a week playing desert football, has not been in the national team squad since Euro last year while still playing professional football for Brentford. (Brentford sold Ivan Toney for €42 million)
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The striker is the big news in Thomas Tuchel’s line-up (heaven knows why), having scored a whopping 29 goals in 43 appearances this season. Only Cristiano Ronaldo has scored more in the Saudi Arabian league. Toney’s last appearance for England was as a substitute in the European Championship final against Spain.
For those wondering: The Saudi Pro League has a lower average attendance than the OBOS League and a level that is below that.
A new face in the squad is Trevoh Chalobah. The defender was on loan at Crystal Palace earlier this season, but returned to Chelsea in January. Now he gets his first chance on the national team.
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World Cup qualifiers and private internationals
England will face Andorra in the World Cup qualifiers on June 7, before playing a private international match against Senegal three days later.
England squad
Goalkeepers:
- Dean Henderson (Crystal Palace)
- Jordan Pickford (Everton)
- James Trafford (Burnley)
defence:
- Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool)
- Dan Burn (Newcastle)
- Trevoh Chalobah (Chelsea)
- Levi Colwill (Chelsea)
- Reece James (Chelsea)
- Ezri Konsa (Aston Villa)
- Myles Lewis-Skelly (Arsenal)
- Kyle Walker (Milan, loan from Manchester City)
midfield:
- Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid)
- Conor Gallagher (Atlético Madrid)
- Morgan Gibbs-White (Nottingham Forest)
- Jordan Henderson (Ajax)
- Curtis Jones (Liverpool)
- Cole Palmer (Chelsea)
- Declan Rice (Arsenal)
- Morgan Rogers (Aston Villa)
attack:
- Eberechi Eze (Crystal Palace)
- Anthony Gordon (Newcastle)
- Harry Kane (Bayern Munich)
- Noni Madueke (Chelsea)
- Bukayo Saka (Arsenal)
- Ivan Toney (Al-Ahli)
- Ollie Watkins (Aston Villa)
