Cheltenham Town Football Sports

Cheltenham Town’s first ever England player as first year scholar Tom King receives a call up

17-year-old Tom King will travel with England’s under-18 team this weekend in a warm-up tournament against Belgium, Morocco, and the Republic of Korea across 10 days in Marbella, Spain.

Tom made his professional debut for the Robins on the opening day of this season away at Shrewsbury, unfortunately losing 1-0. Following that appearance, King became the club’s youngest ever EFL appearance-maker.

Just two months later, he becomes the first ever Cheltenham Town player to receive an England call-up at any age group, including the men’s team.

Tom has been apart of the academy at Cheltenham for over 10 years now, and throughout that decade, his hard work has finally paid off with receiving an international call-up.

Young Lions head coach Ryan Garry has announced his team this morning (6th Oct) for this warmup tournament ahead of the u17 world cup in Indonesia this winter. Brazil, Iran, and North Caledonia will be in the group stage of the tournament.

Tom joins the squad, which is surrounded by many great players from top Premier League clubs: Joel Ndala (Manchester City) and Reiss-Alexander Russell-Denny (Chelsea).

King said, “It’s an amazing feeling to be recognised, and it will be a good experience to play with some really good players.”

Tom made his debut for the Cheltenham Under-18s team at the age of 15, where he came off the bench in a 3-2 win over Bristol Rovers in the Football League Youth Alliance Cup, shortly after getting his first goal against Exeter City in the following week.

He went on to score for the young Robins in six of his 24 appearances for the under-18s last season, which certainly gained the attention of the England scouting team.

Tom’s father, Chris, spoke to the club media at Cheltenham about how proud he was of Tom’s achievement.

“To be honest, the news of his England selection hasn’t really sunk in fully yet. We’ve always believed in Tom’s potential to perform at a top level but had never anticipated he’d be representing England after only 18 months of playing academy football”.

Academy manager Tim Bell discussed and gave insight into King’s qualities that have earned him this incredible achievement.

“His consistent high-level performances and his off-the-grass self-determination to be the version of himself are the foundations that have afforded him this incredible opportunity with England.”

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