One of the big football news stories this week features young West Ham United midfielder Declan Rice, who has declared for Gareth Southgate and England, despite already playing three friendlies for the Republic of Ireland.
He won’t take part in any training sessions until his international status is fully cleared, but Southgate is reportedly keen on including him in his squad for the Euro 2020 qualifiers against the Czech Republic and Montenegro.
It should take between two and six weeks for FIFA to give Rice formal consent, but he should be representing the Three Lions sooner rather than later after a fine season so far for West Ham.
The 20-year-old has broken into the first-team as a central midfielder under Manuel Pellegrini and is now considered as one of the most promising young stars in the Premier League.
After his big decision, we look back at some of the former West Ham stars who have gone on to impress for England that Rice could be looking to emulate.
Jimmy Greaves - 57 caps (1959-1967)
Greaves wasn’t at West Ham for too long after a long stint at Spurs but his 44 goals in 57 caps made him the country’s leading goalscorer before he was surpassed by Bobby Charlton.
Bobby Moore - 108 caps (1962-1973)
A legend of the game. Captained the Hammers for more than 10 years and wore the armband in England’s historic 1966 World Cup-winning campaign. His 108 international caps was a record at one point, later broken by Peter Shilton.
Geoff Hurst - 49 caps (1966-1972)
Hurst made exactly 500 appearances for West Ham and, to this day, remains to be the only player to ever score a hat-trick in a World Cup final – that final was, of course, the 4-2 win over West Germany in ’66.
Trevor Brooking - 47 caps (1974-1982)
Brooking is one of West Ham’s biggest legends and had a stand named after him at Upton Park. In total, he notched up 47 England caps but didn’t quite have the same influence as he did at club level.
Stuart Pearce - 78 caps (1987-1999)
The ex-defender was only at West Ham for two seasons, playing 50 matches, and actually featured more for England (78 times) over the space of 12 years.
Ian Wright - 33 caps (1991-1998)
Although he’s more famous for his stints at Crystal Palace and Arsenal, Wright also played for West Ham later on in his career. He didn’t have much playing time for England though, and only Mick Channon played more international games without being selected for a Euros or World Cup squad.
Teddy Sheringham - 51 caps (1993-2002)
West Ham were the final club Sheringham had a solid spell at in a trophy-filled career, and he made 51 caps for England, scoring 11 goals.
Rio Ferdinand - 81 caps (1997-2011)
It seems like an age ago when Ferdinand was playing for West Ham as a promising centre-half, and when he did play at Upton Park he was with the senior team for six years before moving to Leeds. Although he didn’t achieve anything with England, he made 81 caps as part of a long-term partnership with John Terry.
Frank Lampard - 106 caps (1999-2014)
Another player who represented the Hammers and England with great success Frank is Lampard. The Chelsea legend has gone down as one of the greatest midfielders of this generation and played the second most amount games for England than anyone else in this list.