In the wake of the upcoming European Championship, most Brits, apart from checking online bookies for offers like Matchbook Bonus Code, are turning towards their national side skipper to see which players make it in the final England football squad for the upcoming UEFA Euro 2020. Historically speaking, the England national team has mainly had players who play in the domestic Premier League. As far as Newcastle players go, there hasn’t been a lot of them representing their home country in major tournaments.
Newcastle United has had a number of English players filling their ranks along the years. Most of them were prominent players held in high regard in the Premier League, but even in their heyday not many of them managed to earn a call up for an England football team.
According to the latest football news, the upcoming 2020 Euro Cup will most likely go by without any NUFC players. The latest England squad went by without any Geordies on the roster and chances are that this might be the case for the final England Euro team when the manager makes his final decision and chooses the final 23 men for the Euro Cup 2020.
That said there have been only a handful of Newcastle players who were chosen for an England Euro squad in the past. A total of seven NUFC players wore the Three Lions jersey since the inception of the Premier League with mixed success. Four of them played in the past UEFA Euro competitions while five of them appeared in the final stage of a World Cup.
The hometown hero and one of the best players to wear the Three Lions jersey, Alan Shearer, has certainly made his mark in the English jersey. England will probably wish they had him for the current England squad for the upcoming UEFA Euro 2020, but they will have to settle for him commenting their games from the studio booth.
Shearer has appeared two times on the final stages of Euro competitions, in 1996 played on home soil and in 2000 where he captained the England national team.
England had a very successful campaign in 96 where they managed to reach the semi-finals, where longtime rivals and future winners of the tournament, Germany, eliminated them on penalties. As far as Shearer’s performance at Euro 96, he finished the tournament as the leading scorer, bagging the ball into the net five times, one of them being the leading goal for England in the 3rd minute of the semi-finals game against Germany.
Euro 2000 was a competition that England would rather forget. It was the last major tournament Alan Shearer appeared for England and finished it by scoring two goals. Unfortunately, England was eliminated in the preliminary stage of the competition by losing the final game against Romania. The only thing that they had going for them was a win against Germany with Shearer scoring the only goal of the game.
Football today will remember Kieron Dyer for his antics off the field and not by his heroics on the field. Dyer was seen as one of the brightest prospects that ever played for the Magpies and had a bright future ahead of him that was predicted to overshadow even the likes of David Beckham. His career may have ended differently than expected but in the early stages of his career Kieron was one of the usual names appearing on every manager’s England football squad.
So it was not a surprise when Kieron received a call for the England Euro team in 2004 in Portugal. Unlucky for Kieron, the England national team had the likes of Paul Scholes, David Beckham, Steven Gerard and Frank Lampard in their midfield, leaving Kieron on the bench for most of the times.
Dyer made only one appearance on the tournament where he came off the bench as a substitute, without any significant impact on the game. While England ended their campaign in the quarterfinals by being eliminated on penalties by the host nation Portugal.
The second Newcastle player who filled the ranks of the England football team in 1996 was Les Ferdinand. The successful partnership that Ferdinand and Shearer had playing for the Magpies in the English Premier League was supposed to translate equally well for the national side.
Les Ferdinand earned his call for the final Euro 96 roster by having a very successful camping for Newcastle as the Geordies narrowly missed out on winning the title back then.
Unfortunately for Les, England had Teddy Sheringham in the squad as well. The manager of the team preferred pairing Shearer with Sheringham rather than with Ferdinand, which proved to be a successful combination for the team. Les spent the whole tournament warming the bench and never made a single appearance at Euro 96.
After having a successful season with Newcastle United and almost winning the England football league, Steve Howey was deservedly called for the final England Euro squad in 96. This was probably the last time the Magpies had so many of their players appearing for the national side and probably something that we are unlikely to see for the 2020 Euro Cup.
Steve Howey, 23 back then, was a promising player who had great results for the Geordies and was one of the main reasons the football scores mainly favored the Magpies in the Premier League. But he was not able to transfer the same success on the UEFA Euro stage.
England’s back line was comprised of Adams and Southgate at the time, which left Howey, much like Ferdinand, on the bench without a minute played on the Euros.
