Ex-Super Eagles captain criticizes Southgate for excluding Marcus Rashford from England’s EURO 2024 squad

Former Super Eagles and Chelsea midfielder, John Mikel Obi, has criticized the coach of the England National team for excluding Marcus Rashford from his EURO 2024 squad, Soccernet.ng reports.

Rashford, like his club teammate, Jadon Sancho, suffered a dip in form this season. The former racked up seven goals in all competitions for Manchester United, while the latter hopped off to Borussia Dortmund to rejuvenate his career after falling out with Erik Ten Hag.

Mikel, who won the UEFA Champions League and the Europa League with Chelsea, believes Southgate made the wrong choice by excluding the Manchester United duo from his EURO 2024 team.

“There’s no Marcus Rashford, there’s no Jadon Sancho, those are big calls, are England going to regret that? Marcus Rashford has played for England, and he’s an established international player, sometimes in these tournaments you have to take out the performance throughout the season, it comes down to experience, and who has done it,” the 2013 AFCON winner said on TalkSPORT.

Southgate opted for attacking options like Cole Palmer, Phil Foden, and Bukayo Saka, leaving out a natural left winger in Sterling, Sancho or Rashford, and for Mikel, that’s a completely wrong decision.

“He’s done it at the international level, in my opinion, I thought it was the wrong decision because you go into this tournament and it just clicks for that player all of a sudden because he’s been there, he’s done it. He’s played in these kinds of games, he knows how to play these kinds of games. Is that going to be a big call? Because when Rashford is on fire, he plays really well, so we’ll wait and see,” the Olympic bronze medallist concluded.

England kick off their EURO 2024 campaign against Serbia on the 16th of June. The Three Lions will also face Slovenia and Denmark in their group.

Adefolahan Guerreiro

Adefolahan is a multilingual journalist and writer at Soccernet Nigeria.

With a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering and a track record of involvement in College sports, Adefolahan is focused on crafting engaging football content and utilising his language skills and extensive sports knowledge to enhance content accessibility for a global audience.

He has interviewed Nigerian stars like Finidi George, Junior Lokosa, and Abraham Onahi Ogbu.