Ben White and Bukayo Saka praised Emile Smith Rowe on Instagram after he helped the England U21’s beat Andorra U21’s 1-0 on Monday night.
The Arsenal academy product was handed a start and saved the day for Lee Carsley’s ten men, who made life a lot more difficult for themselves than they should have.
Smith Rowe wasn’t the only Arsenal player scoring yesterday for his country because Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Nicolas Pepe were also on the target.
Nonetheless, Arsenal’s Hale-End academy product walked away with a deserved Man of the Match award yesterday.
And when he reacted on Instagram to the win, several star players reacted to his post.
One of his club teammates White simply wrote: “Brilliant stuff.”, whilst Saka, who is with the senior England side, issued a one-word response: “Standard.”
If Smith Rowe can continue on this upward curve then there is no reason why he shouldn’t be earning that step up to the England men’s team.
He surely isn’t far away from getting that nod from Gareth Southgate and joining Saka and Aaron Ramsdale at St George’s Park.
There is one more international break to go before the year is out, and if ESR continues to shine, then it will be interesting to see if he gets picked.
Even if he doesn’t, it’s nothing untoward to his qualities because there is some serious competition in that creative department for the Three Lions.
Phil Foden, Jack Grealish and Mason Mount are alll shining, then there is teenager Jude Bellingham, who was rested for this camp.
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