{"id":491873,"date":"2025-10-11T20:38:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-11T20:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/491873\/"},"modified":"2025-10-11T20:38:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-11T20:38:11","slug":"west-ham-man-tipped-for-stunning-world-cup-recall-after-two-years-in-wilderness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/491873\/","title":{"rendered":"West Ham man tipped for stunning World Cup recall after two years in wilderness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Including Jarrod Bowen and Lucas Paqueta, West Ham United had no fewer than eight players called up for international duty this month.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Even when leaving out youngsters Michael Forbes and Mateus Fernandes, Under-21 regulars for Northern Ireland and Portugal respectively, and despite a miserable start to the Premier League campaign, there should still be a claret and blue flavour to the 2026 World Cup.<\/p>\n

Thomas Tuchel has been accused of a Bowen blind spot<\/a> since taking charge of the Three Lions. But, to his credit, the England boss has now fielded the West Ham United<\/a> captain in each of the last two fixtures. <\/p>\n

Including Thursday\u2019s 3-0 thumping of Wales at Wembley.<\/p>\n

Tomas Soucek, Konstantinos Mavropanos, El Hadji Malick Diouf and Mads Hermansen will hope to play some sort of a role at next year\u2019s Festival of Football, too. Aaron Wan-Bissaka\u2019s DR Congo outfit are well placed to secure at least a play-off spot, meanwhile, as Callum Marshall consolidates his place for Northern Ireland<\/a>.<\/p>\n

During a 5-0 shellacking of South Korea, Lucas Paqueta showed Carlo Ancelotti<\/a> in a brief second-half cameo what he brings to a star-studded Brazil attack. <\/p>\n

But, speaking after an injury to Harry Kane allowed Ollie Watkins a relatively rare chance to lead the line for England, former West Ham striker Carlton Cole feels that a stunning return to international prominence for a certain Callum Wilson<\/a> should not be ruled out. <\/p>\n

\"CallumPhoto by Shaun Botterill\/Getty ImagesCarlton Cole tips West Ham United\u2019s Callum Wilson for England\u2019s World Cup squad<\/p>\n

As unlikely as it may appear \u2013 a now-33-year-old Wilson earned the most recent of his nine England caps back in 2023 \u2013 it is fair to say Tuchel is not exactly overloaded with potential Kane alternatives.<\/p>\n

Watkins was the obvious choice when the Bayern Munich talisman was ruled out of that Wales clash. Marcus Rashford and the aforementioned Bowen, while certainly capable of performing in a number nine role, prefer to drift in from wide areas.<\/p>\n

Ivan Toney is out in Saudi Arabia, although not that this has stopped Tuchel before. Dominic Solanke and the uncapped Liam Delap have endured injury-hit starts to the season. Then, suddenly, you are looking at the likes of Tammy Abraham, Eddie Nketiah and Dominic Calvert-Lewin.<\/p>\n

So Cole feels that a Wilson return is far from impossible. Especially if Tuchel wants to bring three out-and-out centre-forwards to the World Cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think anyone that finds form, [the chance to be] that back-up for Harry Kane, I think that\u2019s open,\u201d Cole, who earned seven England caps himself, told talkSPORT<\/a>. \u201cI think that\u2019s wide open, actually.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m thinking Callum Wilson, maybe, if he can get a bit of form and change West Ham\u2019s fortunes and get some goals. You never know. He is up for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cole spent some time with Wilson recently. Clearly, West Ham\u2019s new number nine has not given up hope of an unexpected revival on the international stage, even if he will be 34 when the World Cup kicks off in June 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did a podcast with him not so long ago,\u201d Cole adds. \u201cAnd that\u2019s what his focus is on. He wants to get in the England team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilson has not played for England since September 2023<\/p>\n

In order to make that a possibility, Wilson will have to get back in the West Ham team first.<\/p>\n

Nuno chose Callum Marshall over Wilson<\/a> when the Hammers were a goal down at Arsenal last time out. <\/p>\n

While the former Newcastle and Bournemouth poacher has accumulated a handful of enticing cameo performances in a West Ham shirt \u2013 he opened his account with a fine header at Nottingham Forest in August \u2013 he has only played 171 minutes of Premier League football since joining.<\/p>\n

That number should increase soon, though. Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann confirmed this week that West Ham will be without Niclas Fullkrug<\/a> for a few weeks after he tore a thigh muscle.<\/p>\n

Wilson has scored twice for his country, once on his debut against the USA and another in a 4-0 demolition of Malta. He has not earned even a single call-up, however, since a 3-1 victory over Scotland 25 months ago, in September 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Including Jarrod Bowen and Lucas Paqueta, West Ham United had no fewer than eight players called up for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":491874,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4100],"tags":[46691,49417,393,94,101,79,16,15,1514],"class_list":{"0":"post-491873","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-bowen","9":"tag-callum-wilson","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-premier-league","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-world-cup"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=491873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491873\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}