Marcus Rashford

Marcus Rashford is one of the most iconic players currently wearing the England shirt. Although he is 26 now, he was once touted as a wonder kid and many saw him as the future of England’s national team. To some extent he has lived up to those expectations, scoring 3 goals during the 2022 World Cup and 2 goals in England’s Euro Qualifiers. He currently plays for Manchester United, where he is a fan favorite due to his exploits both on and off the pitch. On the pitch, he has won the respect of fans by completing multiple seasons in which he had over 20 goal involvements and recently becoming just the 12th player in Manchester United’s history to score 30 goals across all competitions in a single season. He has great dribbling skills and acceleration, allowing him to easily blow past opponents and attack the goal. He compliments this with an ability to strike the ball both accurately and powerfully, a skill that was exemplified when he hammered a 30 yard free kick into the top corner against Chelsea during the 2019 Carabao Cup final. Off the pitch, he won the respect of the world by starting a campaign against child hunger in England during the Covid-19 pandemic. He was recognized for his hard work and positive impact on the community with an honorary doctorate from the University of Manchester. Even though Rashford has had a very successful career thus far, the 2023/24 season has been less than ideal. He has only 7 goals in 31 matches, and he was recently accused of missing a training session because he had been partying the night before. We do think that his past successes and experience are enough to keep him in the England squad, but we would not be surprised if Southgate favors more in-form options for his team.