When England ended their 39-year wait to become champions of Europe at U21 level in 2023, perhaps it could be argued that it had to happen at some point. But retaining the trophy in 2025? That suggests something more is happening here.
Lee Carsley’s England team threatened to blow Germany away in Bratislava before seeing their opponents come from two down to take the game into extra-time. Still they found a way, riding their luck and a wave of belief that this is just what England do now.
The captain James McAtee was named player of the match, while Harvey Elliott took the player of the tournament award. But all over the pitch, among the substitutes and the staff in the dugout, there were faces responsible for making this historic win possible.
England’s Harvey Elliott was named player of the tournament in Slovakia
Elliot Anderson was magnificent in midfield but all 17 players to feature in the final contributed, supported well by those who did not. With Thomas Tuchel watching on from the stands in Slovakia, he will have seen the wealth of talent at England’s disposal.
The story of these age-group tournaments was once one of drop outs, of a nation not helping itself with its attitude to its own national game. But those withdrawals take on a different context amid success, underlining instead an astonishing depth of talent.
It is not just that Liam Delap went to the Club World Cup with Chelsea or that Jobe Bellingham made the same move with new club Borussia Dortmund. Jamie Gittens was in the United States as well. Jarrad Branthwaite was injured, Taylor Harwood-Bellis too.
Then there are the eligible players already called up to Thomas Tuchel’s senior squad. Jude Bellingham, Cole Palmer, Levi Colwill, Morgan Rogers, Noni Madueke, James Trafford, Rico Lewis, Lewis Hall, Kobbie Mainoo, Adam Wharton and Myles Lewis-Skelly.
Boosted by overseas opportunities
It is not just the depth of the talent around now but the breadth of their experiences. In the past two seasons, half of the outfield starters in the final have played a Champions League game against Paris Saint-Germain, the reigning European club champions.
Nine of them have played Premier League football already, with the only outfield starter not to have done so being central defender Charlie Cresswell, who has spent the past season playing regularly for Toulouse in the top division of French football instead.
That is indicative of a trend within the group. Jonathan Rowe, the scorer of the winning goal in the final, with only his second touch after coming on as a substitute, has been playing for Marseille. Brooke Norton-Cuffy, also involved in that goal, is at Genoa.
Jonathan Rowe, who has spent the season with Marseille, celebrates his goal
Samuel Iling-Junior, another to come off the bench, spent part of this past season at Bologna having previously appeared 45 times for Juventus. Jarell Quansah of Liverpool looks set to become Bayer Leverkusen’s club-record signing in this transfer window.
What some had once feared could prove a vicious cycle for English football – the strength of the Premier League preventing opportunities for young domestic talent – has become a virtuous one instead. Players are getting better experiences than ever before.
It reflects their ability, the work being done at development level in the club game, but it is also a self-fulfilling prophecy. European sides are not only recognising the potential but they are helping to provide the platform that is allowing these players to maximise it.
England get the style blend right
It is a significant transformation that cannot be overstated. Covering this tournament a decade ago, over the border in Czechia in the sleepy city of Olomouc, England finished bottom of their group under Sir Gareth Southgate, success still seeming so far away.
Back in 2015, there was talent too. Harry Kane and John Stones were there. Most of the squad would win senior caps. But none of them had played abroad at the time of the tournament. The culture around England’s national sides was a world away from this.
This is a group with pace and physicality, with ball carriers such as Anderson. But, in a shift that once seemed beyond young England players, Carsley’s team also finished the tournament with the best passing accuracy, reflecting the change in approach.
Elliott was emblematic of the mentality shown by England’s young players
Importantly, rather than merely mimicking the possession game that has long felt fundamental to, say, the style of Spain, there is a balance to their work, a philosophy that feels their own. England, for example, counter-attacked impressively throughout.
James Beadle, the goalkeeper, looked long to Jay Stansfield. Cresswell was happy to launch the ball when required, but was also involved in a sweeping move in the 34th minute that began with Beadle rolling the ball out to Anderson and ended in a shot.
Carsley grows after Greece blow
For Carsley, as well as his players, the manner of it shone a light on his progression. In October, he was being criticised on a scale that would have shocked him after picking an experimental line-up in his caretaker role with the senior side and losing to Greece.
“It is something I will look back on in two or three months and be better for it,” he said at the time of that Wembley defeat. In Bratislava, eight months on as it turned out, he proved his point emphatically by masterminding this historic success for the U21 side.
Returning to the role, he cut a more confident figure, insisting, for example, that only winning the tournament would represent success. There can be a tendency to hide behind that word ‘development’ at age-group level but U21 football is the final step.
It is about preparing players for the demands that will soon come and nobody can deny that Carsley has done that. He talked of turning hope into belief and it is clear that England came into this tournament with the right mentality to go all the way and win it.
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Why Lee Carsley could be in the minds of Premier League clubs after success in Slovakia
Two years ago, they did so without even conceding a goal. This time, it was trickier but no less satisfying for it. They stuttered in the group stage but grew into the tournament and came through despite being pegged back in all three of their knockout matches.
Spain mustered only one of the two required to level it up in the quarter-final but Netherlands did equalise only for England to go again. In the final, Germany came from two down but even that did not break their belief. Carsley was able to turn to the bench.
The man himself, ably supported by England legend Ashley Cole, whose own coaching reputation grows with this victory, has denied that he is “flying the flag” for homegrown coaches but the reality is that, as with the players, there is greater respect there now.
Carsley in line for top job again?
The previous two Spain managers to lift this trophy – Julen Lopetegui and Luis de la Fuente – both went on to the top job, the latter winning Euro 2024. The consensus was that Carsley had missed the chance to press his own claim with that Greece game.
But not only did he win the other five of his six matches in charge, hardly floundering at that level, he has learned. Privately, Carsley has worked to become more media savvy. His in-game changes are becoming better with experience. The mood has shifted again.
The clamour for a proven winner to take England over the line was understandable after falling just short so many times under Southgate. But there is already an appreciation that appointing an overseas tactician does not come with guarantees of glory, after all.
Now, Carsley appears well placed either way. If Tuchel delivers a stunning World Cup win next summer and earns another crack at an elite club, it is the successful U21 boss who will be the continuity candidate, the man perfectly placed to build on that legacy.
If, as is more likely, Tuchel falls short in 2026, Carsley has clearly demonstrated that the pipeline of talent is not only flowing, and that young England players can thrive in the shirt, but that there is a coach out there who is ready and able to help them show it.
