Eddie Nketiah says 23-year-old Arsenal player is just ‘great’

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South London has become a real footballing hotbed in recent years.

Indeed, we’ve seen so much talent come out of that part of the country as of late, and in this current England squad, you have a number of players moulded by the footballing culture of the cages in south London.

The likes of Eberechi Eze, Declan Rice and Emile Smith Rowe have gone from the cages to the England first-team, and on Tuesday evening, we may see another player follow that same journey – Eddie Nketiah.

The striker is in line to get his first game for England against Scotland, and ahead of this historic occasion, he’s written about his story so far for the England National Team website.

Nketiah wrote about his time playing on these concrete pitches in south London, and he recalled how many other future professionals he would play alongside, naming Reiss Nelson as one of the players who was known in the area as a great talent.

Nelson a great player

Nketiah spoke about his current Arsenal teammate alongside a few other professionals as players he really admired as a youngster.

“That Lewisham team included players like Jadon Brown (Lincoln City), Jeremy Ngakia (Watford), Lewis White (Welling United, formerly Millwall) and other good players from the area,” Nketiah wrote.

“Other boroughs had great players too, like Reiss Nelson and Jadon Sancho played for Southwark, so competing against such talent was incredible, and winning the Youth Games felt amazing.”

“Players like Jeremy, Reiss Nelson, Jadon Sancho and Josh Koroma, who’s now at Huddersfield, I would play with them all the time and they were players who had a buzz around them growing up.

“I think playing in places like the cages and the pits helps you improve your one-on-one ability so you’re able to go past players and be creative.

“You learn fearlessness in the cages and develop that grit and determination, and that perseverance.”

Exciting

This explosion of football in this area of the country is truly exciting to see.

Almost every player from this area speaks about how their time playing on these pitches helped them grow technically and physically, and now, the England team are reaping the rewards.

Hopefully, the likes of Nketiah, Nelson and all of the other aforementioned players can continue to inspire other young people across the country to get playing football and the game can continue to grow and more talent can be nurtured and eventually potentially become England stars of the future.