US Edition
We are in a Golden Age of football for England. Not a Golden Generation – that was a crass phrase, a gimmicky marketing-speak pinned on a group of big-name men’s players in the early 2000s by the Football Association’s then chief executive, Adam Crozier.
No, this is a Golden Age. A time when the nation’s football teams are achieving across the board, men and women’s, and throughout the age groups. England is, quite probably, the most successful nation in world football at present.
For the third successive summer a senior team is in a major final. In 2021 it was the men, agonisingly losing the final of the delayed 2020 European Championships after a penalty shoot-out. In 2022 it was the women, winning the Euros for the first time.
Both those finals were at Wembley Stadium but now the women are in Australia and are in their first ever World Cup Final and next year there is the men’s European Championships in Germany with England the justifiable favourites along with France.
The achievements go far deeper. It is not just about the seniors with England and the success of the junior teams bodes well for the future. It is not the exception now for England to go deep into any tournament; it is the expectation.
What it also remarkable is how it can be traced to a specific event: the opening of the national football centre at St George’s Park in Oct 2012.
In the 20 years prior to SGP, England won just three youth tournaments – the men’s Under-18s Euros in 1993 and 2010 and the women’s Under-19s Euros in 2009. That was it.
England often went far – there were 12 semi-finals for the men and the women reached at least that stage on five occasions – but since then there has been an explosion of success. England have won seven tournaments in 10 years, including two under-age men’s World Cups in 2017 and the senior women’s Euros, and hopefully there will be an 11th on Sunday. They have been runners-up three times and semi-finalists, at least, 13 times.
Gareth Southgate, the men’s senior coach, talks about a measure of success being having to go close on several occasions before winning a trophy. This happened with Germany and Spain and France – nations England have studied and are trying to emulate – and Southgate himself has targeted winning next year’s Euros and is brave enough to say that.
There is a correlation with the women’s team. In 2018 they came third, the best-ever showing, in the Under-20 World Cup in France and five of the players – Lauren Hemp, Georgia Stanway, Chloe Kelly, Alessia Russo, Ellie Roebuck and Niamh Charles - are now in the senior squad.
The Football Association deserves credit given, for decades, it has been guilty of underperformance and complacency and especially given its resources which are unmatched by nearly every nation. What is happening now is outstanding; what happened before is an indictment.
“The performance momentum in the women’s elite games is also reflected in the men’s game with (senior) men’s Euro runners-up, men’s Under-19s, men’s Under-21s Euro successes in the last two years,” said FA chief executive Mark Bullingham. “So, it’s an unprecedented period of success for us, for the FA, but we’re not resting on our laurels. There’s still a lot more to come, and we’re absolutely committed to achieving that.”
There has been a cultural re-boot which, although he is too modest to take the credit for it, can be traced back to Sir Trevor Brooking, when he was the FA’s director of football development, insisting that there was a fundamental shift in how England play their football which included SGP.
Southgate, who first joined in the FA in 2011 as the head of elite development after being persuaded to do so by Brooking, has also been integral to the journey and since 2016 has been at the sharp end with the men’s team.
Criticism of him not – yet – winning a tournament is deliberately unfair given what preceded him while Sarina Wiegman’s involvement with the women has been far more recent but has been stunningly successful. The argument against Southgate is that the men need a Wiegman-equivalent, with her record of winning trophies, but he absolutely has earned right to go the Euros next year.
There are so many elements to this success and so many authors – from former FA technical director Dan Ashworth, now with Newcastle United, through to head of development team coaching, Matt Crocker, now the technical director for the United States Soccer Federation.
Credit where credit is due. The clubs have also played their part with the endorsement of EPPP (the Elite Player Performance Plan) while it is key that the FA’s technical directors – John McDermott (Tottenham Hotspur) with the men, Kay Cossington (Millwall and West Ham United) with the women – have a background in club football.
An example of this working was the – eventual – agreement with the clubs for an early release date for the 23 players at the women’s World Cup and it is surely no coincidence they face Spain with the whole squad fit.
It has taken a lot of hard work –an example being the national coaches room at SGP where exhaustive debriefs of each camp from Under-15s to Under-21s has taken place as to what worked and what did not and what talent was coming through – and investment.
It is paying off, quite literally. England is probably the world’s wealthiest developed football nation through the Premier League and that should be reflected in success.
Of course it may not last but what is so encouraging is the foundation and foresight England finally have in place. This is a Golden Age and the women can take it to a new level by sealing their status as the best team in the world.
This is a golden age for English football – we’re now the most successful nation in the world
Women, men and junior sides have created new expectations and Lionesses can take it to a new level by winning World Cup on Sunday