Even though Kobbie Mainoo has been playing great for Manchester United, he probably won’t be called up to the England team on Thursday.
England’s manager, Gareth Southgate, is going to pick his team for the games against Brazil and Belgium on March 23 and 26. According to Rob Dorsett of Sky, however, Mainoo will not be picked, even though he has played 19 times for United this season as an adult. Instead, he will be moved up to the Under-21s for the first time. The FA knows he is a “key prospect,” so they are taking advantage of that.
There are six caps for Mainoo on England’s U19 team. He also has caps from the U17 and U18 teams. Although the midfielder can also play for Ghana, Dorsett says that the FA wants to “fast-track” the youngster to make sure he wants to play for England.
Ghana has already said that they would love for Mainoo to play for them. They have a lot of good players in their national pool, but they haven’t made a choice yet. But in November, he led England’s U18 team to a 3-2 win over Japan.
England’s group will be announced on Thursday, as the team gets ready for the European Championship this summer. Next up for United is a very important FA Cup quarterfinal match against Liverpool on Sunday.