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There's A Ridiculous Reason England Rejected Ethan Ampadu

There's A Ridiculous Reason England Rejected Ethan Ampadu

The Wales and Chelsea player has been impressing recently and he could have been in Gareth Southgate's side but for a bizarre reason.

Ryan Sidle

Ryan Sidle

Ethan Ampadu might still be a teenager but he's already impressing on the international scene for Wales. Gareth Southgate might be a little annoyed to find out that the defender could have been pulling on an England shirt instead.

There are plenty of stories of players who were eligible for England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland or Republic of Ireland and ended up playing for one of the others.

Whether it's a case of fancying your chances with a different side or actually feeling like you're more one nationality than the other players change all the time, often after they've played for a different country at youth level.

That's the same for Ethan Ampadu. The Chelsea centre back and midfielder has played four international games for Wales so far recently impressing in the win against Ireland and the loss against Denmark in the Nations League.

However things might have been different for the teenager as he played for England's under 15s and was actually born in Exeter.

Talking on BBC Radio 5 Live his former boss at Exeter City, Paul Tisdale, revealed that he spoke to the FA about how good the youngster was and the weird reason they let him go, saying:

"I haven't seen a 14-year-old as good as Ethan Ampadu. I mean I actually phoned England to make it known.

"I spoke to very relevant people and said, 'you've got to get a hold of this chap. He's such a good player.'

"...I said, 'I've just seen this chap play, he's 14, he just played for Exeter Under-18s, he's four years younger, he's played on a dreadful pitch with awful conditions and he's played centre forward, sweeper, centre midfield all in the space of one game.

"I was told they had better. I was told they had 12 players better, they were aware of Ethan and, well, I said, 'this chap just, he thinks correctly, he acts correctly, he makes good decisions,' and I was told that he takes too few touches.

"They were looking for players who want to take more touches, which is actually his strength. He does things in one touch, two touch, he sees it early."

Ampadu was excellent in the games against Ireland. Image: PA Images
Ampadu was excellent in the games against Ireland. Image: PA Images

England's whole idea is to find players who are good with the ball at their feet and whilst that's very commendable it's a nonsense to think a player who moves the ball on quickly is a bad thing.

Ampadu may well have chosen Wales anyway, he qualifies through his mother being Welsh, but still the reasoning is maddening.

The 17 year old has a bright future ahead of him and now he just needs to concentrate on getting into the Chelsea first team.

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Topics: Football News, Chelsea, Premier League, England, Wales