Ethan Ampadu was eligble to play England (Picture: Getty)
Chelsea teenager Ethan Ampadu has made a brilliant start to his senior international career with Wales but according to a former manager he could have been turning out for England instead.
Paul Tisdale, who managed Ampadu’s first club Exeter City from 2006 up until earlier this year, handed the 17-year-old his senior debut in 2016 when he was just 15 in a League Cup game.
Tisdale, now manager of MK Dons, has revealed that such was Ampadu’s potential when he was rising through Exeter’s ranks, he felt obliged to call the FA to alert their attention to him.
Ethan Ampadu made his breakthrough at Exeter City in League Two (Picture: Getty)
The FA decided against taking Tisdale’s advice on board, however, claiming that they were aware of Ampadu already but that they felt he took ‘too many touches’ in matches.
‘I haven’t seen a 14-year-old as good as Ethan. I actually phoned England to make it known that. I spoke to very relevant people and said you’ve got to get hold of this chap. He’s such a good player,’ Tisdale told BBC 5Live.
‘[He’s] a player’s player. I did phone England when he was 14. I said ‘I’ve just seen this chap play, he’s 14, he just played in Exeter U18s, he’s four years younger, he’s played on a dreadful pitch with awful conditions and he’s played centre forward, centre midfield, sweeper all in the space of one game. He looks like Ruud Gullit and this chap you need to get for England’.
‘I was told they had 12 players better, they were aware of Ethan and I said well ‘this chap just thinks correctly, he acts correctly, he makes good decisions’ and I was told that he takes too few touches.
‘They were looking for players who wanted to take more touches, which is actually his strength. He does things in one touch, two touch, he sees it early.’
England’s loss appears to be Wales’ gain as Ampadu delivered a man of the match display during his country’s 4-1 win over the Republic of Ireland in their UEFA Nations League opener last week.
Ampadu featured seven times in all competitions for Chelsea last season, predominantly in a central defensive role, but for Wales he has been used a deep-lying playmaker in midfield to great effect.
Ampadu caught the eye during Wales’ 4-1 win over the Republic of Ireland (Picture: Getty)
England are lacking ball-playing midfielders at present and Gareth Southgate may lament the failure to recruit a player of Ampadu’s potential, especially after he completed 88% of his passes and provided an assist in that game against Ireland.
After England’s 2-1 defeat to Spain on Saturday, Southgate said that England would never be a top team if they reverted back to long-ball tactics and said they would ‘suffer’ as they move to a more possession-based style.
The topic of international allegiance is prevalent at the moment with West Ham’s Declan Rice taking time out to decide whether to represent Ireland or England internationally.
Ampadu, incidentally, could have chosen to represent England, Ireland or Ghana internationally as well as Wales.