U-17 World Cup: Sancho-less England team reach Kolkata

The England U-17 football team touched down in the city on Tuesday afternoon without star attacking midfielder Jadon Sancho for the FIFA U-17 World Cup which starts on Friday.

England, placed in Group F along with Chile, Iraq and Mexico, will play their first match on Sunday against Chile.

Coached by Welshman Steve Cooper, the 20-member squad landed at the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport at around 2:20 pm from Mumbai where they have been practicing for the last few days and headed straight to a plush hotel where the Chile and Iraq teams are also putting up.

Mexico will arrive on Wednesday.

England beat New Zealand 3-2 in a practice game in Mumbai recently.

Sancho is expected to join his teammates later and be available for the group stages of the tournament after reports of the player's club German giants Borussia Dortmund not letting him go surfaced.

"We are expecting him to join them in Kolkata," a source close to the England team told IANS.

"We are in talks with the English FA," Dortmund Sporting director Michael Zorc was quoted as saying by ESPNFC.

"Maybe we will let him go in the coming weeks over the international break -- that would be for the World Cup group phase."

London-born Sancho was part of Dortmund's first-team squad for the first time at the weekend, but did not feature in the 2-1 victory over Augsburg.

Sancho has netted 13 goals in 16 games so far for the England U-17 team -- nicknamed the Young Lions. He joined the German outfit from English Premier League heavyweights Manchester City on the final day of the summer transfer window.

"England won't practice today," their media in charge Amy Hart said.

The Young Lions have been invited to join the Durga Puja immersion carnival at Red Road here on Tuesday evening by the West Bengal government.

This is England's fourth appearance at the U-17 World Cup and their second in a row. The only edition in which they failed to get beyond the first round was the last one in Chile two years ago, when they collected two draws and a defeat.

The U-17 side is one of two English teams to have won a penalty shoot-out in the finals of a FIFA competition, having outsmarted Argentina from the spot in the Round of 16 in 2011.

The other side is the U-20 team, who edged out Mexico in the quarter-finals in 1993.

By contrast, the senior team have been involved in three penalty shoot-outs and lost each of those, all in the FIFA World Cup.

England lost on penalties to Spain in the final of the UEFA European Under-17 Championship 2017.

Nevertheless, they qualified for the U-17 World Cup 2017 by edging out Republic of Ireland 1-0 in the quarter-finals.

The squad:

Goalkeepers: Curtis Anderson (Manchester City), Josef Bursik (Stoke City), William Crelin (Fleetwood Town)

Defenders: Timothy Eyoma (Tottenham Hotspur), Joel Latibeaudiere (Manchester City), Marc Guehi (Chelsea), Jonathan Panzo (Chelsea), Lewis Gibson (Everton), Steven Sessegnon (Fulham), Morgan Gibbs White (Wolverhampton Wanderers), Tashan Oakley Boothe (Tottenham Hotspur)

Midfielders: Conor Gallagher (Chelsea), Angel Gomes (Manchester United), Nya Kirby (Crystal Palace), George McEachran (Chelsea)

Forwards: Jadon Sancho (Borussia Dortmund), Callum Hudson Odoi (Chelsea), Philip Foden (Manchester City), Emile Smith Rowe (Arsenal), Rhian Brewster (Liverpool), Danny Loader (Reading)

--IANS

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