Arsenal’s Eddie Nketiah can be the next Harry Kane or Alan Shearer, says England U21 boss

Striking talent: Eddie Nketiah
Getty Images
Richard Parry13 October 2020

Arsenal striker Eddie Nketiah could follow in the footsteps of Harry Kane and Alan Shearer, according to England U21 boss Aidy Boothroyd.

Nketiah is level with Shearer and former Arsenal striker Francis Jeffers as England Under-21s' all-time leading goalscorer, having scored his 13th goal in last week's 3-3 European Championship qualifying draw in Andorra.

Shearer became senior England captain and scored 32 goals for the national side and Boothroyd believes comparisons with him, as well current skipper and frontline forward Kane, are valid.

"There are always comparisons with top players over generations,” said Boothroyd.

"If you look at Alan and the career he had and Harry Kane and the career he is having - where Eddie is concerned, if he can get to the point where, like those two players, he's in on goal and you just know he is going to score, that's when you make the step from young player to senior player.

"He's not quite there yet but he's not far off. The fact he's in the company of those players that I've mentioned shows how much I think of him and how much we think of him in the system.

"He is destined for some big things. He has an aura of responsibility and leadership about him. He is a natural. He is very professional as well.

"If you were going to put someone up there as 'this is what you want young England players to look like', then it would be him."

Nketiah will have a chance to break the record against Turkey at Molineux on Tuesday, when a victory would see England through to the Uefa Under-21 Championship with two games to spare.

Additional reporting by the Press Association

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in