England’s Gordon: ‘Never a thought’ to play for Scotland

Anthony Gordon has insisted “it was never an idea” to play for Scotland after taking a step closer to realizing his dream of representing England.

The 23-year-old last week earned his first call-up to Gareth Southgate's senior squad for upcoming friendlies against Brazil and Belgium later this month.

Gordon has Scottish paternal grandparents and the north of the border was keen to convince him to switch allegiances after playing for England at Under-18, Under-19, Under-20 and England levels. under 21 years old.

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But the Newcastle winger said: “It was never a thought of mine. It's not a disrespect to Scotland, that's all. I have a tunnel vision about playing for England since the age of five or six.

“Nothing could ever get rid of it. I could never forgive myself if it hadn't come to this. Like I said, it's just a dream I've had since I was so young, so nothing 'other never occurred to me. time.'

Further explaining his love affair with England, Gordon continued: “I think I always wanted to be at the top of football. I think that's the dream of every kid who loves football. I think as a young Englishman this is the pinnacle to playing for your country so it's not extra motivation or a great story but just that.

“The tournament that sticks in my mind is the one where [Daniel] Sturridge scored against Wales [in Euro 2016]. It was actually a little late [in my memory], but that's when I grew up and really got interested in football and I remember that goal for some reason. I celebrated like crazy.

“In my opinion, [the players I looked at] was always [Wayne] Rooney and [Steven] Gerrard because they came from similar areas. I always used to run around the garden from a very young age and try to recreate goals, create my own types of goals. I admired them enormously.”

Gordon was named Player of the Tournament as England beat Spain to win the European Under-21 Championship.

“The level of the under-21s is very high,” he said. “Our team was a very, very good team. A lot of them played in the Premier League week in, week out at big clubs. Being in those environments, wanting to show what you can do, prepares you for that environment and I'm very grateful for all the experiences I had with the youth teams.

“Me coming through the youth systems, I was able to see the progression not only in the senior team but also in the youth teams. Everything we did in terms of team analysis, our training, everything just kept getting better and better every year. “I've just seen it with the first team, they've gotten better and better and we're probably in the strongest position we've been in for a long time. “