England star could have played for Scotland – but was told he wasn’t good enough

Conor Gallagher insists he could have been starring for Scotland at Euro 2024 – but was told he wasn’t good enough.

The Chelsea midfielder will be part of the England squad in Germany this summer but his international career could have went very differently after training with the Scotland set-up as a teenager. He hadn’t been good enough for the Three Lions youth sides at that time so gave it a bash north of the border as he qualifies through his grandfather.

But he was told he wasn’t going to cut it for us either. Remarkably, he went onto to force his way into England’s plans and actually won the under-17s World Cup with the country of his birth. He then graduated to the under-21s and eventually the full squad, earning his first cap in a 10-0 win over San Marino.

Gallagher now has 13 caps and will hope to play a huge part for Gareth Southgate’s team over the next few weeks.

Reflecting on the Scotland near thing, he said: “When I was 15 or 16 I wasn’t good enough for the England youth team.

“So I went to train with one of the Scotland teams to see what I was like, and I wasn’t good enough for them either! I worked my way back into the England youth set-up and was lucky enough to stay in.”