England had chances against Germany.
The world champions were still the better of the two teams in Wednesday’s friendly, edging a 1-0 win thanks to Lukas Podolski’s piledriver from distance, but Gareth Southgate’s men, without a natural goalscorer on the pitch, couldn’t make the most of their opportunities.
On the bench, though, they had someone who may well have taken one of those opportunities. Of the 26 players Southgate picked for the friendly in Berlin and this weekend’s World Cup qualifier against Lithuania, nobody has scored more at international level than Jermain Defoe, with 19 goals in 55 appearances to his name.
So why wasn’t he used?
It was illustrative of how Defoe is regarded in general. As the seventh top scorer in Premier League history, putting him ahead of players such as Michael Owen, Teddy Sheringham, Robin Van Persie, Sergio Aguero, Ryan Giggs and Cristiano Ronaldo, Defoe should be considered a legend of the English game, yet the Sunderland striker is still subject to a bizarre brand of derision.
[snippet]
Of course, at 34 years old, a large part of this comes from the belief that England should have more youthful options to choose from. But with 14 goals in 28 appearances for rock-bottom Sunderland this season, Defoe has more than proved that he can still cut it at the top level, even as he enters the twilight of his career.
Maybe Defoe would be thought of differently had he stayed with one club for more than just a few seasons at a time. The striker might be a Premier League legend, but having played for four different teams in England, as well as Toronto FC in Major League Soccer, he never stuck around at any one place long enough to truly make one place his own.
This is the paradox of Defoe’s career. While he has managed to sustain over a decade of goalscoring success, with no sign of that drying up, the striker has always managed to find himself bizarrely on the peripheries of things. Like at Tottenham, where despite his consistency he was never really considered their first-choice front man.
Even at Portsmouth, where Defoe was the star, his success was fleeting, playing just 30 games for the club before financial armageddon engulfed Fratton Park. Defoe is guilty of making a number of poor career decisions, even if they haven’t really held him back in terms of goalscoring. Those decisions have, however, had an impact on his reputation, which have in turn counted against him when it comes to his international prospects.
But the inconvenient truth for Southgate is that behind Harry Kane, Defoe is the best out-and-out striker England has right now. Even if Wayne Rooney is brought back into the national team fold, having been omitted for the games against Germany and Lithuania, Defoe is the most reliable goalscorer at Southgate’s disposal, even if so few are willing to recognize that.
“I know how important it is to play for your country,” Defoe said ahead of Wednesday’s friendly against Germany. “Being lucky enough to have experienced it, you just want it more and more. Just going to a major tournament, travelling, getting to the hotels, playing the games—it’s something you’ve always wanted to do from being a kid, growing up watching the great players over the years. If I do get an opportunity to get to another major tournament it will be a dream.”
Many baulked at Defoe’s comments, but this is a symptom of the unjustified arrogance English soccer possesses with regards to its national team. What right is there to be snobby about Defoe’s prospects of playing at another major tournament when there are no alternatives? England must accept where it is in the pecking order and embrace players such as Defoe, a solid and consistent, if somewhat unremarkable, talent.
Southgate might wish to focus on youth, rejuvenating the England team in a way that hasn’t happened for generations, but that doesn’t mean that there should be scope for players like Defoe. It’s about time there was a place for him.
[snippet id=3296647]