James Maddison can pin-point the moment England enthralled him as accurately as a set piece for Leicester. It was almost 15 years ago to the day when, sitting at home in Coventry in a kit bearing the name Rooney, he watched the teenage sensation lead England into the European Championship quarter-finals with two goals against Croatia. The long wait to make his own mark on the international stage is just about over.
There is a genuine, giddy excitement about Maddison as he prepares to face France in England’s opening game of the European Under-21 Championship on Tuesday. At 22 he is one of the most senior members of Aidy Boothroyd’s squad and has Premier League pedigree to support that status. Yet in terms of international competition he is a novice; four years older than Wayne Rooney was at Euro 2004 but still waiting for the opportunity to emulate a boyhood hero.
Maddison’s pathway to the top has been forged via League One with Coventry, the Championship with Norwich and the Scottish Premiership on loan at Aberdeen rather than the academy route and England youth teams.
There was some surprise that a fine debut season in the top flight with Leicester was not rewarded with a place in Gareth Southgate’s senior squad for the Nations League finals. The creative midfielder, however, is exactly where he wants to be right now.
“I have been looking forward to this for ages,” he says. “I have never played an international tournament before. I have played in qualifying and international friendlies but not a tournament at this level. It is new to me and I am raring. The challenge we face trying to win it drives me on that extra few per cent. You are playing for your country. You can never take that for granted at any level. People ask: ‘What do you think about not getting called to the seniors?’ I don’t care. When I put that badge on I want to go and win this tournament.”
Cold ambition accompanies Maddison’s natural enthusiasm for the Euros. While Phil Foden and Morgan Gibbs-White have won a World Cup at under-17 level with England, and nine other teammates are under-20s world champions, Maddison is still striving for that first winner’s medal. It is how he expects his career to be judged.
“I want to be a winner,” he says. “At the end of your career you can look back and think: ‘Yeah, OK, a few man of the matches here and a player of the season there’ but football is a team game, not like tennis or golf when it’s for you only. It is a team game and I want to have winner’s medals at the end of it.
“The other lads have had success in tournaments. My trophy cabinet is empty at the minute. I have a few individual ones in there but there are no winner’s medals. I am desperate to win. All our families are out here and you can just feel it with the media here and the people welcoming us in training. It is such a big stage to express what good talent we have in the England ranks. England fans will be watching thinking this is the future. We all want to do well and showcase what we bring personally but as a team we are good friends and want to do it for each other.”
Maddison’s parents and younger brother are in Italy and San Marino for the tournament. “Hopefully all the way until 30 June,” he says of the final date. His father, Gary, is a graphic designer who puts his skills to use compiling montages of his son’s career. Maddison senior hopes to add a few highlights in the next fortnight.
“He is good with computers and has always had the camera on me in the back yard, playing for the school team or getting my clips from the Coventry academy,” he reveals. “He has always put together clips of me. It is good for him to look back on and it shows he is proud of me. He’ll just say, ‘James, I’ve done a video. Check it out.’”
France, Maddison admits, are “a brilliant team” and “a strong outfit” but the nature of the competition – with the three group winners and best runner-up making the semi-finals – heightens the pressure on England for a winning start.
He adds: “The format changes things. We know we have a good squad with good players who are regulars in the Premier League but that doesn’t mean anything in tournament football. You lose a game and you are in jeopardy. We can’t let that happen. We have to take our game plan, and two years of qualifying, into this tournament and give everything. We have worked hard to get to this stage. It can’t go out of the window.
“Purely on technical ability we have arguably the best squad in the tournament. But we have a good balance. A technical team won’t win a tournament. You need everything: technical ability, game management, experience, youth, legs. There is a good feel about the camp and I an confident we can beat France and do well in the next two games.”
Probable teams
England (4-2-3-1) Henderson; Wan-Bissaka, Clarke-Salter, Tomori, Kelly; Choudhury, Dowell; Maddison, Foden, Sessegnon; Calvert-Lewin
France (4-2-3-1) Bernardoni; Dagba, Konaté, Upamecano, Ballo-Touré; Aouar, Tousart; Bamba, Reine-Adelaide, Del Castillo; Dembélé.
Referee SJovanovic (Serbia)
TV Sky Sports Football 8pm