Jarrod Bowen had to pinch himself as he took to the stage to face the media ahead of England’s upcoming UEFA Nations League fixtures.
It is just eight short years ago that the West Ham United No20 was playing in the fifth tier of English football for Hereford United.
But having climbed the leagues since and notched 16 goals for the Hammers last term, he has linked up with Gareth Southgate’s Three Lions for the first time for the summer internationals.
With four Nations League assignments to come – against Hungary twice, Germany and Italy – Bowen has the perfect stage on which to showcase his considerable talents with the FIFA World Cup in Qatar a little over five months away.
Bowen is taking it step-by-step, however, and is fully focused on showing his best side for his country.
This is everything you dream of when you’re growing up.
I have a lot of memories of watching England – I’m a football fan and I love football.
I love watching my country, so it will be a little bit strange when all my friends are in the pub watching the games and hopefully I’m participating.
It’s great to be in now, having been injured for the games in March.
When I did the injury, I knew it was a bad one at the time, and then it was about finding out what it was and seeing how long I’d be out for.
As soon as I knew I’d be out, I kind of accepted it – I didn’t know I was going to be in the squad, I knew there was talk and I might have been close but it happened for a reason.
I just had to get fit and continue in the form to get me into this camp now.
The dream of playing for England seemed a million miles away when I was playing for Hereford!
At the time it was Conference football playing for my local team and that was it. I didn’t have any dreams [of this] as you don’t think of someone from Hereford getting the move to Hull in the first place.
It was just playing week in, week out for my local team in the Conference and sometimes I just look back at where I’ve come from, especially being in the England camp now.
When you’re 17 and playing for Hereford, you’re looking at players like Jamie Vardy and Tyrone Mings, who also hadn’t come through an Academy set-up and they were playing in the top leagues.
You don’t really think of it in that sense, you just play your football and if you’re good enough and have the work ethic, it will take you a long way.
For me, it was about improving on what I did last season.
Last season was my first full Premier League season and it was kind of getting my foot in and seeing where you were in terms of goals and assists.
Then, this season it was about more showing what I’m about and getting my numbers even higher. I set myself high standards, and it was about reaching those high standards.
Of course I’ve thought about the World Cup.
But this is my first camp and it’s not about wanting to come and go – I want to show what I’m about and cement my place here. That’s the main message to myself.
Of course I have to respect the fact it’s my first camp, but my main aim is to show what I’m about and respect that I’m here on merit.
The competition is so high but you want that competition as a player.
You want that to push you on and give you that edge. I’m honoured to be here and be in the conversation with these names that I’m playing with. It just goes to show I’ve done something right this season and there’s still plenty of improvement to come from me as well.
The Nations League is a great tournament.
You want to be in as many tournaments as possible and be successful in every one. We have great games coming up and being part of it is really special.
David Moyes has played a massive role for me in my career.
He was the one who gave me the opportunity to come to the Premier League in the first place when there’s always question marks about players coming from the Championship, whether they’ll be able to handle the step-up.
He’s managed me really well. This season he’s really got the best out of me and we’ve got a great relationship working together.
I don’t think there’s a better holding midfielder player in the Premier League than Declan Rice.
In the Euros, Dec really showed what he’s about and I think people started to understand him more and really see how good he is. I see it every day in training – I saw how good he was in the Euros season and this season he’s gone on to another level. You want to play with the best players and I want to play with Dec at my club and for my country as well.
