England Under-21 head coach Lee Carsley has named his 25-man squad for the upcoming friendlies against France and Portugal.
Carsley oversaw the senior international team’s Nations League campaign last year and returns to the Under-21 job with plenty of highly regarded talent available.
According to valuations from Transfermarkt, Carsley’s 25 players have an eye-watering combined market value of £411 million.
Who are the highest rated players in the England Under-21 squad?
20-year-old Borussia Dortmund winger Jamie Gittens has a market value of £42m, the highest single value in Carsley’s squad.
Berkshire-born Gittens hasn’t quite been at his sharpest in recent weeks but has been an important player for Dortmund since making his first team debut in 2022.
Thomas Tuchel has named his first squad and his omissions have allowed Carsley to draft in a number of players who might have been expected to get a senior call-up or have had them before.
Adam Wharton of Crystal Palace and Everton’s Jarrad Branthwaite are high on the list of players who were in predicted squads but missed out.
Rico Lewis (Manchester City) has five senior caps but drops into the Under-21s along with Taylor Harwood-Bellis (Southampton), who scored on his senior England debut against the Republic of Ireland.
Arsenal winger Ethan Nwaneri was a decent outside bet for a first call-up by Tuchel but misses out. Carsley has selected him for the Under-21 friendlies instead.
Among the other Premier League regulars selected in Carsley’s squad are Alex Scott of Bournemouth, Tottenham Hotspur defender Archie Gray and Jack Hinshelwood of Brighton & Hove Albion.
Elliot Anderson is one of several overlooked Nottingham Forest players but the only one eligible to play for the Under-21s, while Harvey Elliott (Liverpool) and James McAtee (Man City) also make the cut for Carsley.
Ipswich Town’s attacking trio of Liam Delap, Omari Hutchinson and Jaden Philogene are joined by Middlesbrough’s Aston Villa loanee Samuel Iling-Junior and Birmingham City striker Jay Stansfield.
Stansfield is the second-highest scorer in League One but accounts for more than £7.5m of the squad’s total market value according to Transfermarkt.
He’s the only player from League One in Carsley’s squad but a handful of Championship talents will be involved along with goalkeepers Teddy Sharman-Lowe (Doncaster Rovers) and Tommy Simkin (Walsall), who are on loan in League Two from Chelsea and Stoke City respectively.
Nwaneri, Sharman-Lowe, CJ Egan-Riley and Dennis Cirkin are first-time call-ups.
Carsley’s England Under-21 team will play France in Lorient next Friday before welcoming Portugal to the Hawthorns, home of West Bromwich Albion, the following Monday.
