Lee Elam will be hoping to kick off a glorious summer of football for England’s national teams after securing a call-up to the Three Lions’ Veterans Squad for the Seniors World Cup.
In a few weeks’ time, the likes of Harry Kane, Jude Bellingham and Phil Foden will take on Serbia as Gareth Southgate’s men start their Euro 2024 campaign in Germany.
But, before then a squad of former professionals and semi-pros will be looking to bring home the Seniors World Cup, which is being played in Thailand this week, a trophy they lifted for a record sixth time last year.
They have made it through to tomorrow’s semi-final after securing a 2-1 victory against host nation Thailand on Wednesday.
They will face Iran in a 7pm kick off (1pm uk time).
The squad includes England-born duo Deon Burton and Ian Cox who respectively made Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago’s squads at the actual 1998 and 2006 World Cup finals.
One-time Premier League pro Barry Hayles – another full Jamaican international – has made the plane, too, along with ex Norther Ireland international Steve Jones who was capped 29 times.
Jon Challinor – a member of York City’s 2012 double Wembley-winning side – has also made the 23-strong playing squad, having turned out for Stamford in the Southern League Premier Division Central last season at the age of 43.
The group who flew out to Thailand on May 29 and played a friendly against a representative side from the city of Pattaya and ran out comfortable 7-0 winners with preparation and acclimatisation being the night’s main objective.
This unique international competition has specific age rules, that can be a nightmare for the manager’s both in assembling a squad and the in-game management, as each side can only play three players aged 40-44, four aged 45-49 and three over 50s must be included.
If the team go all the way to the final, they will have faced the challenging prospect of having to play five 80-minute games across 6 days in temperatures reaching as high as 40deg Celsius.
The tournament commenced on June 3 and will finish on June 8 with the majority of the games being streamed live.
Bangkok’s 51,000-capacity Rajamangala Stadium, where the national team play and Manchester United met Liverpool in a 2022 friendly, may yet be in line to stage the final followed by a Gala Dinner attended by all sides.
England have played all their group games at the Custom United Stadium in the Lat Krabang suburb of Bangkok, with many local school children in attendance.
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