How Portugal's Southampton Stars Can Harm England's Euro 2016 Preparations
Whatever the final make-up of Roy Hodgson’s England squad for Euro 2016 is, one thing is for certain—that all of the 23 players selected will ply their trade in England’s top division.
The English footballer is notoriously a home bird—a species that travels rarely and often not very successfully.
The success of the English Premier League is one of the main reasons for that, of course, with the healthy competitive nature of the division raising the question as to why an English player would want to look elsewhere, but when you compare and contrast it with the vast majority of other nations in France in the summer, you’ll see a big difference.
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Take Thursday night’s friendly opponents Portugal for instance, whose current 23-man squad for the Euros is made up of players playing in Spain, France, Croatia, Turkey, Germany, Portugal—inevitably—and England—perhaps even more inevitably.
But whereas Cristiano Ronaldo and Nani used to call the Premier League home, it is now a couple of defensive stars who will be able to offer the squad the lowdown on Thursday’s opposition.
Jose Fonte and Cedric Soares—fresh from a fine end to the English season and a sixth-place Premier League finish with Southampton—will be lining up against familiar faces at Wembley, and both would doubtless tell you that playing in England has been a key factor behind the success of their careers.
Fonte, in particular, owes pretty much everything to the English league system, rising up through it with Southampton to become regarded as one of the best and most dependable defenders in the Premier League right now.
After a career in his homeland that appeared to be drifting through a series of loan moves and disappointments, Fonte—formerly on the books at both Sporting Lisbon and Benfica—spent two-and-a-half years at Crystal Palace, but it wasn’t until his move to Southampton in January 2010 that England really began to feel like home.
Playing in a side that has improved its league position in each of the seven seasons he’s been there—a run which includes two promotions and now European football—Fonte, the club captain, has become a south-coast idol, with his fine form rewarded with a first cap for his country at the ripe old age of 31 at the start of the Euro 2016 qualifiers.
An unflappable defender who has managed to maintain his form despite going through a series of centre-back partners—almost one a season—there is a sense among Saints fans that he is finally getting the recognition he deserves. His success story just as impressive as the many others to have come through that seriously admirable club in recent years.
On Fonte’s right-hand side for club and country stands the right-back Cedric, with both playing the full 90 minutes in Sunday night’s 3-0 friendly victory over Norway in Porto.
Brought to the club last summer as a replacement for Thursday’s Wembley opponent Nathaniel Clyne, Cedric’s place in the hearts of Saints supporters hasn’t quite been cemented just yet, but he was largely solid in a debut season in which he alternated right-back duties with fellow new arrival Cuco Martina.
Like Fonte, he now has 10 caps for Portugal, but unlike his club captain he was able to make an impact at one of the big clubs in his homeland, playing 89 times for Sporting across three seasons.
His is a career that has been forged in Portugal, but now, like so many others, he is finding success in England’s top flight. Indeed, if reports linking Liverpool with a summer move for the Portugal left-back Raphael Guerreiro, according to Matt Barlow of the Daily Mail—who scored a fine free-kick against Norway on Sunday—prove to be accurate, then they could be seen to be blazing a trail.
And playing in the division has done no harm to Fonte and Cedric, who look set to be key players for their country in the summer. The former might be ageing, but he’s not as old as Bruno Alves and Ricardo Carvalho, who both still cling to places in the squad, while the latter will battle with Vieirinha for the right-back slot.
Fonte and Cedric will be happy to be back in England, where their club manager, Ronald Koeman, has turned Southampton into a real force in the face of seemingly daunting odds in the last two seasons. They have become key players for the Dutchman—in turn becoming important performers for Fernando Santos’ national team.
The result at Wembley on Thursday night might not be the most important thing for either Santos or Hodgson, but both will be looking for the final pointers with regards to team selection for when the real action begins in France.
England had a gentle warm-up win over Australia in Sunderland last Friday with which to sharpen minds and bodies, but if Portugal’s two Premier League defenders can bring a little of their Southampton spirit to north London, then this test certainly won’t be an easy one.
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