ENGLAND

A City academy graduate having signed aged eight, O’Reilly’s rise has been rapid. A full debut in 2024, a first England call-up a year later, and now a World Cup. “It’s mad, I never thought I’d be in this position so soon,” he said last year, insisting his breakthrough hadn’t changed him. “I've still got the same friends, I still do the same stuff, I still go to Tesco with my mum.” He says mum Holli is his inspiration, and she recorded a surprise video message for him when he signed his new City contract last September, saying: “I always remember, when you were about three months old, I looked at you and I knew you were special. I said to Nana he is special and she laughed at me like she does, and says everyone thinks their kids are special. But son, I knew you were, and always believed in you, and always will. Don’t ever change. You’re absolutely smashing life, and I love you.”

The most expensive British player ever at £105m, just ahead of £100m Jack Grealish. Rice was released from Chelsea’s academy aged 14 and joined West Ham after a trial. He stayed there until 2023 having become one of only three Hammers captains, with Billy Bonds and Bobby Moore, to lead the club to a major trophy. Now a Premier League champion with Arsenal, he made three appearances for Ireland before committing to England in 2019. Also loves golf, and did some modelling at London Fashion Week in 2024, wearing a navy jacket with white lace-up tie. “You know what, it was so good,” he told Sky. “I love fashion, this is really special.” Has talked previously about developing his own look, after growing up with “mum always telling me how to dress … I’m always looking for a pair of trousers that sit above my shoes well. Not too low, not too high. That’s a key thing for me, how a pair of trousers sit on shoes.”

Feels like a long-term fixture in England squads, having made his debut six years ago, but is still only 24. His first name, chosen by his Nigerian grandmother, means “adds to happiness”; his nickname, “Little Chilli”, was given to him by former teammate Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang due to his spicy shooting in training. “He just kept calling me it and then it became a thing, and now it's a big thing.” In 2024 Nandos brought out an official Peri Peri Saka sauce, with Saka saying: “I’ve been going to Nando’s since I was little so to have my own Peri-Peri sauce is quite mad.” During three months out with a torn hamstring last year he bought a new puppy, Tucker the cockapoo, and got stuck into reading, with one book in particular, Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment, striking a chord. “Sometimes I’d think: ‘Oh, am I going to come back in the best shape?’ Or, in the past: ‘What could I have done to prevent injury?’ But all that is not necessary. One of the best things I took from the book is to always ask yourself: what’s necessary in this moment right now? And try to live that way.”

Whitley Bay-born Anderson was named in the senior Scotland squad for the first time in August 2023, eligible to represent them through his grandmother. But he changed his mind soon after. “I left camp after a few days and decided I just needed more time,” he said after being called into the senior England squad last year. “I didn’t want to dive into anything, so I’m really thankful I’ve done that now. I’m definitely English. It’s just I hadn’t really been called up by England through the age levels when I was younger so I thought I’d take the opportunity. But once I got that belief that I was good enough to play for England, it hit me.” Newcastle sold him to Forest in 2024 to meet Premier League profitability and sustainability rules. Anderson is another graduate of the famous Wallsend Boys Club, alongside Alan Shearer, Peter Beardsley and Michael Carrick. His older brother Wil appeared on the 11th season of Love Island, entering the villa on Day 12, and being dumped on Day 37.

Overtook Pelé’s international scoring record last year, but it wasn’t until last summer that he finally lifted a club trophy, when Bayern won their 34th Bundesliga. “It was a weight on me,” he said. “As the years go by you start to think: ‘Is it going to happen?’” It was a rough road to the top: at 19 he was loaned to Norwich, missed a sitter on his debut, played five times, scored no goals. He also had a hard time on loan at Leicester – which partly motivated his creation of the Harry Kane Foundation, supporting mental health charities. “There wasn’t just a straight line to the top [for me]. I had to really go through some tough times. I’m learning more and more [about mental health] and for sure it’s something that I’ll really try to take on and help as much as I can when my career has finished.” In his spare time he plays golf, collects watches and plays chess, inspired by watching The Queen's Gambit. He told GQ in 2024: “Since that came out I've started to learn and I'm about 1200 rated on the 10-minute version on Chess.com. It's fairly decent.”

Raised in Stourbridge, Bellingham used to turn up at Birmingham for training aged 14 in his burgundy Priory School uniform. Striker Lukas Jutkiewicz said: “We’re doing finishing drills and this kid’s joining in with the first-team, he’s faking to shoot, putting senior pros on their arses, chopping and then rolling it into the other corner. I thought to myself – and I know I wasn’t the only one – ‘Just who is this?’” Bellingham graduated from Loughborough College with a BTec Level 3 Certificate in Sport in 2021, completing it remotely after moving to Borussia Dortmund. Commercial deals include Louis Vuitton, Lucozade, his own JB Adidas signature collection, his own app, and, in 2024, modelling men’s underpants for Kim Kardashian’s Skims brand. He had an uneasy moment with Thomas Tuchel last year when the England manager told TalkSport about Bellingham’s “edge” during games which “can be a bit repulsive”. Tuchel clarified later: “I used this word unintentionally. There was no message, no hidden agenda. I created the headlines and I’m sorry for the upset. I should have known better.”

Rogers says his loan spells at Lincoln, Bournemouth and Blackpool – before his move to Middlesbrough in 2023 – “were everything to me”. He told The Times: “I had to go through a lot of struggles, a lot of pain, a lot of hard days … I had to find myself as a player, and I had to find that out in the lower leagues – what works in a professional game – because what works in [Man City] academy football is not the same in League One or the Championship.” He moved to Villa for £8m in 2024. He says he was “a bit of a geek for football knowledge” as a boy: “Learning players, learning teams and stuff. Me and my dad were quite big on it – he’d ask me questions and I’d answer them. I’d be able to name random players across the world and stuff. I’d try and be the cleverest person in the room when it came to football.” He has multiple tattoos, including one on his left forearm listing the birthdays of his parents and three brothers. “That is my favourite one. My most sentimental one.”

Signed by Crystal Palace when he was nine, he switched to Spurs three years later and, after starring at England youth levels, was approached by Manchester United. But he rejected them, opting instead to leave England aged 16 for PSV Eindhoven. “I just wanted to be integrated into a first-team setup as quickly as possible.” He told GQ he learnt Dutch quickly because “I didn't want anyone talking shit about me on the field … Like, ‘I know exactly what you're saying!’” He shone there, and Chelsea signed him from PSV for £28.5m in 2023. Arsenal paid £48.5m for him in 2025 – a deal criticised by some Arsenal fans with a #NoToMadueke campaign due to his mixed form, and the fee. “I took it in my stride. You are in the public eye, people can say what they want.” He’s one of the England squad’s fashion fans. “I feel like if you look good, you feel good, you play good. Football, music, fashion, it’s all connected for me. It’s how I express who I am, and each one feeds into the other.”

Last summer Eze was flying: an FA Cup winner with Crystal Palace, an emerging England regular, and a new £60m signing for boyhood club Arsenal. But – apart from a memorable derby hattrick against Spurs, and two in the return fixture – he has struggled to make a regular impact in a title-winning season at the Emirates. But he has plenty of resilience to draw on, having been through the trauma of being released by multiple clubs, including Arsenal, as a youngster. Looking back he said he coped thanks to “my trust and faith in God, I just allowed it to fuel me and fill me up, which was important. It doesn't mean that it wasn’t difficult. It's still difficult to get through those times. I remember thinking: ‘why is this so hard? But the love for football never, never changed.” He’s also a keen chess player, having been taught to play by former Palace teammate Michael Olise. Eze won the £15,000 first prize in a Chess.com amateur tournament in May last year, beating YouTuber Sapnap in the final.