Burnley's Nick Pope named in England squad for Nations League games with Hungary, Germany and European champions Italy
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Pope was restored to Gareth Southgate’s pool in March, starting the friendly against Ivory Coast at Wembley for his eighth cap, having been left out of the previous two squads.
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Hide AdAnd by pulling on the Three Lions jersey for an eighth time, he moved level with the legendary Colin McDonald as Burnley’s most-capped England goalkeeper.
Pope has by far and away the best record for goals conceded per minutes played for England at one in 610 minutes – the next best being Bill Rowley (Stoke), George Toone (Notts County) and Harry Linacre (Nottingham Forest), who all conceded one in their two appearances for one goal against every 180 minutes.
He is one of three keepers in the squad, with long-time number one Jordan Pickford of Everton and Arsenal’s Aaron Ramsdale, but has been linked with a number of Premier League clubs after Burnley’s relegation on Sunday, including West Ham and Fulham.
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Hide AdMcDonald won his eight caps all in 1958, including all four games at the World Cup in Sweden, where he was recognised as the best goalkeeper at the tournament.
England lost a Group 4 play-off 1-0 to the USSR, but earlier in the group, he kept a clean sheet against eventual winners Brazil in a goal-less draw – the first in World Cup Finals history.
Cruelly, with England, and Burnley, on the cusp of greatness, in March 1959, McDonald broke his leg appearing for the Football League against the League of Ireland in Dublin, and didn’t recover sufficiently to play first team football again.
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Hide AdThe squad is: Jordan Pickford (Everton), Nick Pope (Burnley), Aaron Ramsdale (Arsenal); Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool), Conor Coady (Wolves), Marc Guehi (Crystal Palace), Reece James (Chelsea), James Justin (Leicester), Harry Maguire (Manchester United), John Stones (Manchester City), Fikayo Tomori (Milan), Kieran Trippier (Newcastle), Kyle Walker (Manchester City), Ben White (Arsenal); Jude Bellingham (Borussia Dortmund), Conor Gallagher (Crystal Palace on loan from Chelsea), Mason Mount (Chelsea), Kalvin Phillips (Leeds), Declan Rice (West Ham), James Ward-Prowse (Southampton); Tammy Abraham (Roma), Jarrod Bowen (West Ham), Phil Foden (Manchester City), Jack Grealish (Manchester City), Harry Kane (Spurs), Bukayo Saka (Arsenal), Raheem Sterling (Manchester City).
England face Hungary in Budapest on June 4th, Germany in Munich on the 7th, then Italy on the 11th and Hungary on the 14th, both at Molineux.