England have ‘future Ballon d’Or winners’ as John Stones hails progress before USA World Cup showdown

John Stones thinks there are future Ballon d’Or winners in the England squad.

Stones is set to win his 60th cap tonight and is the only England player to start every match in the past three major tournaments, dating back to the 2018 World Cup.

The Manchester City defender feels the team have progressed since the last World Cup and that they now have the technical players to dominate possession.

Luka Modric controlled the game for Croatia in the semi-final four years ago, while England were content for Italy to dominate the ball in the Euro 2020 Final. But Stones believes England now have midfielders capable of taking hold of big games.

“There are periods of games where some players can get on top and find some rhythm,” he said ahead of tonight’s clash with the United States.

“Luka Modric is obviously a Ballon d’Or winner who has quality with the ball. What we have got in our dressing room is hopefully some future Ballon d’Or winners.

“As a collective it is about knowing each other and those states of games like the semi-final in the World Cup, which felt like an unknown territory to us. In certain situations or areas, if you have not experienced it before, you ask what is the answer or when to slow the game down. We have definitely now got that experience with the players in the dressing room.

“It comes with us playing in big games for our clubs and England. I hope we can go far and start dominating and controlling games. That is something over these past four years since the World Cup that we definitely have done.”