COLD AS ICE

Cole Palmer has become one of the Premier League's greatest cult players, aided by big-game displays and a love of chippy chips. Former stars tell us how playing twice a day helped him to the top, and why he reminds them of Cantona and Gazza

- Words Ed McCambridge

Not for the first time that day, the skinny whelp in blue had given the ball away - outmuscled and outmanoeuvred by kids that were twice his size.

Still, there was something about the lad that impressed England Under-15s coach Kevin Betsy. “It was the way he showed for the ball again and again, even if he’d just lost it,” Betsy tells FFT nine years on. “He had that confidence, not only to receive the pass while under pressure, but the way he set himself to take it. Always positive in his actions.”

Betsy was in attendance at a youth tournament that featured some of the brightest academy talents across the country, on the hunt for players that could form a junior Three Lions squad for a clash with Turkey in late 2016. He kept an eye on the little playmaker that had caught his attention across the next two games, before going over to speak to his Manchester City coaches.

“I was told the kid’s name was Cole Palmer,” says Betsy. “His coaches were really glowing about him. They said I'd be wise to take a proper look at him and assured me he had a good attitude - a well-grounded boy. I was convinced.”

Palmer was invited to a trial day in Loughborough along with around 80 other prodigious young talents, before joining a whittled-down group of 40 at St George’s Park, where he made the cut for the final England squad.

“That group, which would have been the 2002 birth year, was really talented,” recalls Betsy. “It included Cole, Morgan Rogers, Noni Madueke, Tino Livramento, Jude Bellingham and Jamal Musiala - the latter pair playing up a year.”

Rogers and Musiala got themselves on the scoresheet in a 5-2 win against Turkey, but Palmer also impressed his manager. “Cole started up front and had some really nice touches, some intelligent movement and got himself an assist,” recalls Betsy. “We were very happy with the way he played.”