This summer’s World Cup Finals in Russia, which start on 14th June, will have interest for Premier League fans far beyond the success, or otherwise, of the England team. Every Premier League side will have representatives at the finals hoping to make their mark on footballing history, with The Premier League as a whole counting no less than 130 of their players taking part.
So, what familiar faces might meet along the way, and which players will split our loyalties between club and country as England try to progress to the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow on July 15th? Could the players we cheer on, week in and week out, make it less likely for England to win the World Cup?
Group D has the fiercest of Premier League rivalries, with all four clubs boasting big name stars. Including City players, Aguero and Otamendi (playing for Argentina), Liverpool’s Lovren (representing Croatia), Everton’s Sigurdsson (playing for Iceland), and Chelsea’s Moses and Arsenal’s Iwobi (both playing for Nigeria), there is top flight talent aplenty in the group.
Group B also has an intriguing match-up, with Manchester City’s Silva boys, David and Bernardo, facing off for Spain and Portugal in the first game of the group.
As you would expect, in our own Group G, England potentially have more than two dozen Premier League players in their squad, including Arsenal’s Danny Welbeck, Chelsea’s Gary Cahill, Leicester’s Jamie Vardy and Liverpool’s Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Daniel Sturridge. They are joined by Raheem Sterling and Kyle Walker from Man City, Phil Jones and Marcus Rashford from Man Utd and Dele Alli and Harry Kane from Spurs.
Lining up against them, Belgium have no less than 18 of their own Premier League stars in their squad. Man Utd’s Lukaka, who has been scoring for fun in qualifying, could face teammate Phil Jones, while Gary Cahill will be tasked with stopping his Chelsea teammate Eden Hazard. We could even get Spurs against Spurs, as Belgian defensive partnership Alderweireld and Vertonghen try to stop England’s Harry Kane. There’s even a Premier League clash with the managers, with both Gareth Southgate and Roberto Martinez’s former Premier League players.
If England manage to go one better than the disaster of 2014 (and surely, they will, needing only to beat World Cup neophytes Panama and lowly Tunisia), further Premier League talent will await them in the knock-out stages. According to Eurosport, if England get past Belgium on 28th June (and top the group), they will face a potential quarterfinal against a Brazil side packed with stars such as Chelsea’s Willian and David Luiz, Liverpool’s Firmino and Coutinho, and Fernandinho and Ederson from Man City.
If they get past Brazil, France will probably be waiting in the semi-finals, with the likes of Chelsea’s N’Golo Kante, Man City’s Mendy and Man Utd’s Pogba. If England survives that, they will have to face a final against a cup-holding German side featuring players like Arsenal’s Ozil and Liverpool’s Emre Can alongside their talented Bundesliga counterparts.
It all feels like a very long and hard road, but if you want to win the World Cup, you have to beat the best sides in the world. We can only hope that our knowledge of their star players from weekly Premier League matches, and even from shared training grounds, will give the England players an edge over their overseas rivals.