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#3 Wilson’s persistence pays off
Bournemouth striker Callum Wilson has taken the long road to the beginning of his England career – like fellow England players Harry Maguire and Dele Alli, he came up through England’s lower leagues, breaking through at Coventry before helping Bournemouth win promotion to the Premier League in 2014-15. He’s also been through a pair of serious knee surgeries.
Despite a red-hot start to 2018-19 that has seen him score 6 goals and assist in 4, Wilson was overlooked for England’s last two fixtures against Croatia and Spain, and some fans were questioning if he would ever be given a chance. That changed tonight as he was called up to the squad and given a start on his debut....and lets be honest, it didn’t start off too well for him.
Sure, Wilson got into the right positions and made a lot of the right runs, but it just felt like one of those nights where he would probably miss all of his chances – or conspire to fail to have a shot in the first place. A recent article actually suggested that the Bournemouth striker misses as many “big chances” as he scores, in fact.
But Wilson was undeterred and kept finding himself in the right positions, and finally – right before he was substituted for Marcus Rashford – he found the net with a well-taken volley from Fabian Delph’s cross.
Sure, the game was essentially over by that stage, but the kind of persistence Wilson showed to score his first England goal proved that he belongs on the highest stage – and with England short on strikers following Jamie Vardy’s international retirement, it’s a stage he might be gracing a lot more in the near future.
