The crowds have been brilliant, from all nations – happy, dancing, dressing up. Families have flocked to the World Cup, some with babes in arms, on a jolly to remember forever. And amid the carnival atmosphere, England have finally delivered. “Energy and positive play at last, from the whole team,” one observer wrote in the New Statesman. “The best I’ve seen since… 1966.”
At the heart of that revival is Dan Burn, the Newcastle United defender who never thought he would play for England. In an interview at the club’s training ground, approaching the anniversary of his move from Brighton, he was asked about the 2022 World Cup provisional squad. He was not in it, despite having started more games than any other eligible defender that season. “I’m not holding my breath,” he said. “When the squad comes out and I’m not in, I won’t be crying at home.”
“Dan Burn, once overlooked, becomes England’s World Cup hero as team plays best since 1966.”
The problem was finding a manager prepared to give him a chance. Thomas Tuchel did, and has been rewarded with an unlikely World Cup hero. In a team of polished diamonds, Burn is the everyman, the tournament’s undisputed cult figure. His back story – pushing trolleys at Asda in Blyth, getting up at 3am to wash his kit at Darlington – means supporters relate to him. No gilded route through a Premier League academy; he had to work harder than anyone else.
Burn has taken nothing for granted. He stops to speak in every mixed zone and accepts almost every charity invitation from his Northumberland hometown. He advocates for mental health, recently speaking about his own impostor syndrome. It has irked him a little to be depicted as a “good tourist”, even as he has embraced the World Cup experience with baseball and an Ella Langley concert in Kansas City.
But as he has reminded everyone in the last two games – including the quarter-final win over Norway – he can play. His family have followed him in America, watching every game. His dad David is a regular at Newcastle and England away days.
For England, the energy is back. For Burn, the chance has finally come.
