One of major complaints about English players young or old is that they don't venture into foreign leagues enough, but instead rather sit on the bench of the Premier League clubs and receive fat pay checks, thus resulting in their careers stagnating. This reality makes young defender Eric Dier development quite interesting. Moving to Portugal at age 10 around 2002 for family reasons, he has spent the last decade developing his skills at the famous Sporting Lisbon academy that nurtured the two of Portugal's greatest ever players: Luis Figo and Cristiano Ronaldo. That continental upbringing is possibly a reason for him displaying relative comfort in playing centre-back and full-back, in his first two games for Tottenham so far this season. The last English player to have such a significant foreign education before tasting the Premier League was Owen Hargreaves and he was a very good player, even though it took three lions fans a long time to appreciate him. Even before one mentions that Dier is likely to be a key defender in the 2018 world cup, his early performances means Hodgson has not reason to continue picking Phil Jones and Chris Smalling for upcoming friendly versus Norway nor matches in the 2016 European Championship qualifiers. Which players do you think will be most important to re-establishing England as a top world force at the next World Cup? Share your thoughts below in the comments thread.
Football fanatic & frustrated England national team supporter.
I tend to watch all international football tournaments and qualifiers that is humanly possibly. Also, as much premier league, serie a, bundesliga, la liga, ligue 1, champions league and MLS every season.
