A shiver goes down the spine of most fans when one of their players steps out in the shirt of their country.
For obvious tribal reasons, a Manchester City player for England – say, Foden or Grealish – seems to carry even more emotional weight for a True Blue than, say, Bernardo Silva or Cancelo for Portugal. Or Rodri or Laporte for Spain.
And City fans will have plenty of players to follow in Qatar where City may repeat the remarkable statistic of the last World Cup, with the most players from a single club on display across all the national competitors. We’ll know in the next week or so.
If all five of City’s England contingent announced today – Walker, Stones, Kalvin Phillips, Foden and Grealish – start one game together in Qatar, it will match the best-ever statistic to date of 12th Oct 2021 when all these players, except Sterling or Phillips, started against Hungary in the disappointing 1-1 World Cup qualifying draw at Wembley.
And you’d have to go back to 7th September 2010 in Basle to find that even more than five City players finished on the pitch at the end of the Euro 2012 qualifier with Switzerland which they won 3-1.
The four who started were Hart, Lescott, Barry and Milner – and Johnson and Wright-Phillips came on as subs. An astonishing six on the pitch together which may never be matched.
Over a decade of domestic dominance by City has been marked not only by the sheer volume of international call-ups but by the obvious advantage of players from a highly successful team being selected together, partly because of their ease and familiarity with each other’s game and skillset.
It certainly beats players who only meet up three or four times a year. Success breeds success. Walker and Stones know instinctively where to find Foden and Grealish in the channels.
And Jack Grealish picked the perfect moment on Wednesday night against Chelsea to have one of his best games in a City shirt. As Sterling’s star fades, Grealish and the dynamic Phil Foden may well now finish the tournament as the first-choice front-three alongside Harry Kane.
Meanwhile, the headlong fall from grace of the lumbering Harry Maguire has made John Stones’ timely return to fitness one of the key elements in England’s chances, as he now takes on the mantle of senior centre-back with the evergreen Kyle Walker alongside him, once he fully recovers from injury, too.
At college during the great years of 1968-71, one of my proudest memories was seeing three City players – Bell, Lee and Summerbee – The Holy Trinity – playing for England, although sadly never together. Nonetheless, two at a time seemed remarkable enough.
How times have changed.
Can you name these Man City players from the 2000s? Test your knowledge, take the quiz and challenge your friends and family to beat your score</strong>