Striking benefits: England's Euros squad is a celebration of immigration

With another men’s Euros fast approaching for the Three Lions, expectations are again high, with many fans hoping the men's team can break their 58-year curse of failing to bring home a major international trophy.

In the last men’s Euros, research from Best for Britain showed that the 26-man England squad had 13 players who could have represented another country, either due to being born outside of the UK, or having parents and grandparents of different nationalities. However, that number has further increased for the 2024 squad with 15 of the 26 players being able to represent other countries. 

For example, young talent Kobbie Mainoo, who was recently added to the squad, is eligible to play for Ghana due to his Ghanian mother. Therefore, had England not given him the call-up in March 2024, he could well have represented his mother’s country internationally rather than the Three Lions.

Further new additions to the squad include Ezri Konsa who can also represent the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Angola due to his Congolese father and Angolan mother. In fact, five out of eight of the defenders picked for the men’s Euros are eligible to represent other countries. Alongside Konsa, there is Kyle Walker (Jamaica), Joe Gomez (Gambia), Marc Guehi (Ivory Coast) and Trent Alexander-Arnold (USA).

When you add up all the international caps of these defenders (138 caps), they equal the combined caps of previous England legends John Terry (78 caps), Jamie Carragher (38 caps) and Lee Dixon (22 caps).

Some of England’s greatest talents in the current and previous squads would not have had the chance to represent England, especially if past immigration laws had been as harsh as legislation like the Rwanda Bill implemented by Rishi Sunak and his Tory counterparts today. 

We have come so far in previous tournaments, and if the Tory government stays in power for much longer, their increasing hostility to immigrants could restrict our ability to find talented players to represent us in future tournaments. And after all, surely our England team can’t become as disastrous as this current Government.

No matter what happens in this tournament, we can be grateful that many of these exceptional talents can and are able to represent us this summer.

Written by Eli Crossley, aged 17, while doing work experience at Best for Britain