Harvey Vale captains England to U19 Euros semifinal

The next generation of stars emerging from the Chelsea Academy include young Harvey Vale, who made his senior debut this past season, collecting five appearances in total, including a start against Brentford in the League Cup quarterfinals.

He was rewarded for his efforts with a call-up to the England U19 national football team for this summer’s U19 Euros held in Slovakia. And so far, the tournament’s going quite swimmingly for the young lions, with a perfect group stage (three wins from three, seven goals scored, zero conceded) setting them up for a semifinal matchup against Italy on Tuesday.

Vale, deployed in an attacking role on the left flank (wing/wing-back) captained the team in the first two games, a 2-0 win over Austria and a 4-0 win over Serbia, before getting the night off in the 1-0 win against Israel.

Fellow Academy standout, defender Bashir Humphreys, has started the last two games, while Academy goalkeeper Teddy Sharman-Lowe got the nod against Israel, as did former Chelsea prospect Sam Iling-Junior.

England last reached the final in 2017 (with the last two editions, 2020 and 2021 canceled due to COVID-19), when a team led by Mason Mount and Dujon Sterling (and Jay Dasilva) beat Portugal, 2-1 to claim the trophy. That was England’s first win in this competition since 1993.