Guernsey Press

Ryan Sessegnon named in England Under-21 squad

The Fulham youngster has scored 14 times for the Cottagers this term.

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Fulham’s Ryan Sessegnon has been handed his first call-up to the England Under-21 squad.

The 17-year-old, who has scored 14 goals in 40 appearances for the Cottagers this season, is included for the games against Romania and Ukraine this month.

Left-sided Sessegnon helped the Under-19s to European Championship glory last summer and he is joined by new call-up Ovie Ejaria, who won the Under-20 World Cup last year and is on loan at Sunderland from Liverpool.

Boss Aidy Boothroyd said: “It’s been a good start to our new Euro campaign.

“We’ve got 13 points from the five games, a five-point lead at the top of our group and after analysing all of those games from different areas, we still think we could be better, so that’s a real positive.

“We’ll now be working hard to make sure we keep improving on our games so far and we’ve got two matches this month against Romania and Ukraine to try and do that.”

Tammy Abraham and Dominic Solanke return to the set-up after their senior debuts last November, while Tottenham midfielder Harry Winks is included despite fears over an ankle injury.

England are unbeaten and five points clear at the top of Group 4 as they look to qualify for Euro 2019 in Italy and San Marino.

They host Ukraine in Sheffield on March 27 looking to tighten their grip on the qualifying spot.

The Young Lions will first host Romania in a friendly at Molineux on March 24 which has been called the Cyrille Regis International.

Regis died suddenly in January aged 59 and Boothroyd is pleased his team can pay their own tribute to the former West Brom and Wolves striker, who is seen as a pioneer for black players.

“My first memory of Cyrille was buying the ‘101 Great Goals’ video on Betamax and watching this brilliant, powerful player hand-off defenders before smashing the ball from 30 yards into the top corner,” he said.

“He was a fantastic footballer and he broke ground for a lot of other black players to come through and play in the English leagues.”

England Under-21 squad:

Gunn (Norwich, on loan from Manchester City), Henderson (Shrewsbury, on loan from Manchester United), Woodman (Aberdeen, on loan from Newcastle), Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool), Chilwell (Leicester), Clarke-Salter (Sunderland, on loan from Chelsea), Fry (Middlesbrough), Holgate (Everton), Kenny (Everton), Sessegnon (Fulham), Tomori (Hull, on loan from Chelsea), Walker-Peters (Tottenham), Worrall (Nottingham Forest), Davies (Everton), Dowell (Nottingham Forest, on loan from Everton), Ejaria (Sunderland, on loan from Liverpool), Maitland-Niles (Arsenal), Onomah (Aston Villa, on loan from Tottenham), Winks (Tottenham), Abraham (Swansea, on loan from Chelsea), Calvert-Lewin (Everton), Gray (Leicester), Harrison (Middlesbrough, on loan from Manchester City), Lookman (RB Leipzig, on loan from Everton), Maddison (Norwich), Solanke (Liverpool)

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