From the Academy to the World Cup

A Charlton academy product will almost certainly be playing for England in the World Cup against Croatia on Wednesday, but I doubt that we will get a mention.

Here are a few excerpts from Richard Crawley's story about Ezri Konsa.  The full interview with Jason Euell is available to subscribers to his Substack page.

“It was about managing Ezri’s frustration in training and games - because he always wanted himself and everyone else to do well. You can see now he does that extremely well. It is about habits that players pick up. It can become a positive habit - knowing how to control frustration.”

Jason Euell is explaining his reasoning behind when he made Ezri Konsa the captain of Charlton Athletic’s U16 team.

It is 12 years since Euell handed Konsa the armband. Now he is an England international, capped 19 times, and in Thomas Tuchel’s squad for their World Cup campaign, which starts against Croatia on Wednesday.

Konsa signed for Charlton at the age of 11 following a six-week trial in 2008. In February 2018, already a first-team regular by the time he had turned 20, he explained to the South London Press why he had the word ‘blessed’ tattooed on the side of his left hand.

“I feel very fortunate to be in this position right now - playing football for Charlton Athletic. There are a lot of kids my age, and younger, who want to get into my position.   The area where I was growing up there was a lot of crimes and gangs. But I wouldn’t like to say I would have got caught up in anything if it wasn’t for football. I’ve got an older brother who looks after me a lot.”

Konsa’s Charlton story ended in June 2018 when he signed for Championship side Brentford. Thirteen months later he was on the move again, this time to Aston Villa, newly-promoted to the Premier League.

BTW, the obsession of Spectator editor (Lord) Michael Gove with Charlton has taken a new turn.  He has hired Charlie Methven as his World Cup correspondent, billing him as 'former Charlton Athletic director.'