Gazza names his favourite England players with three AXED from Southgate’s squad… and he’d never heard of Bellingham

ENGLAND hero Paul Gascoigne has named his favourite Three Lions players from the current crop of stars.

However, Gazza would have been heartbroken to learn that three of his picks did not make Gareth Southgate’s final 26-player squad for Euro 2024 in Germany.

Gascoigne, 57, was appearing on The Rest Is Football podcast as a special guest alongside usual suspects, Gary Lineker, Micah Richards and Alan Shearer.

And after recalling some tales of his time in the England camp, Richards then asked Gascoigne who his favourite players were out of the current crop of English talent.

Gascoigne sheepishly admitted he only knew a couple before revealing the first of his picks.

He said: “I like [Jack] Grealish because he always wants to be on the ball.

“[Jude] Bellingham, I’d never heard of him to be fair apart from the last two games.

“Honestly, I did an interview and they said, ‘What do you think of Bellingham’ and I said, ‘Who’s he?’

“That was only a few weeks ago, but I’ve seen him play at Real Madrid and he was quality when he played for them, he’s good.

“Obviously, I like [Marcus] Rashford I just wish he’d smile now and again.

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“He’s got great talent but I think if he just lightened up a little bit he’d be even better.”

Gazza continued: “I like the goalkeeper (Jordan Pickford).

“I like the Peter Beardsley lookalike, him at the back, the centre-half, what’s his name?”

Lineker and Richards chimed in simultaneously said: “[Harry] Maguire.”

Gascoigne, who scored ten goals in 57 England games, added: “Yeah Beardsley lookalike, he’s not bad.”

Host Lineker then joked: “Why didn’t you go into punditry I can’t figure it out.”

The comment prompted laughter from the group, but Gazza replied: “I tried but remember I got kicked off. I was better with a crowd.

“I did get offered a job at Sky, the money was good but you ever tried putting dishes up in the winter?”

Gazza’s comments suggest the Three Lions Euro 2024 would have been vastly different if he were in charge of the team instead of Southgate.

That is because Southgate snubbed Rashford from his provisional squad, before Grealish and Maguire were cut from the squad, with the latters being enforced through injury.

Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk