Middlesbrough ace Dael Fry targets World Cup glory after training with Wayne Rooney and the England squad ahead of Slovenia match
DAEL FRY says the hurt from missing out on Euro glory is driving England Under-20s on to try and conquer the world.
The Middlesbrough defender, who is currently on loan at Rotherham, was part of the squad that won this week’s four-team mini international tournament in the north west.
Last week’s victories over Holland and Germany were followed up with a 2-0 win over USA at Rochdale on Tuesday, ensuring the hosts romped to top spot with a 100 per cent record.
And the week was made all the sweeter by the fact that Fry got to train with the England senior squad.
Gareth Southgate needed an extra two bodies for one of his training sessions with the Three Lions last week at St. George’s Park, and Fry was chosen alongside Everton’s Callum Connolly from the U20s to join in.
“It came as a total surprise and was amazing for me,” Fry exclusively told SunSport.
“Obviously, my goal is to try and make it more of a regular thing in the years to come, but I know I’ve got a lot of hard work ahead of me before I can even think about that.
“But it was great to be training alongside fantastic players like Wayne Rooney, and with Gareth as the manager too – he was one of my heroes growing up as a Boro fan.
“It’s something I’ll never forget.”
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Another thing Fry, who made eight appearances for Boro last season as they won promotion to the Premier League, is struggling to forget is the pain of losing in the U19s Euro semi-finals in July.
That defeat to Italy in the last four still rankles with the Young Lions after going into the competition as one of the favourites to claim the crown.
Reaching the last four, however, did ensure that England qualified for next summer’s U20s World Cup in South Korea.
Fry said: “I was lucky enough to be part of the squad that won the Euros in 2014 and there are quite a lot of others within this group that were involved in that too.
“We expected a lot more last summer. Having won it before we thought we could do it again but it was a big learning curve for us.
“I think we have come out of it better in the long run though and we did still manage to qualify for the World Cup.
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“That will be massive. We all used to watch the senior one on the TV when we were younger and think ‘I’d love to be part of one of them’.
“So to get the chance to actually go to one in South Korea is a massive opportunity for all of us – I just hope I’m involved.
“We are all desperate to make a big impression there after missing out on the Euros.”
This week’s mini tournament was put together by England chiefs with the intention of gaining experience of playing in a four-team group ahead of the World Cup.
And despite it only being a friendly competition as such, Fry says all these experiences can only help to make the squad better equipped to take on the planet’s best.
Fry added: “That’s why these tournaments are so important – and we could come up against teams like these in the World Cup.
“It’s always good to come away with England and even better to get a trophy.
“We are really pleased to have not just won it, but to do it with three victories and only conceding one goal makes it a bit more special.
“Holland are tough side, we beat them in the Euro final two years ago, so it was good to beat them again 2-0. Then it’s obviously always a big battle to defeat Germany, which we did 3-1, and the USA was a strong test but we ground out a 2-0 victory.”