Confirmed by the Guardian
Marvin Sordell is a surprise inclusion in the Great Britain Olympic football squad which Stuart Pearce will announce on Monday. The 21-year-old striker made only three appearances for Bolton Wanderers last season following a £3m transfer from Watford in January but has scored two goals in seven appearances for Pearce's England Under-21 side.
Other more familiar names scheduled to be announced include Chelsea's Daniel Sturridge, Josh McEachran and Ryan Bertrand, Manchester United's Tom Cleverley, Swansea City's Joe Allen, Arsenal's Aaron Ramsey, Blackburn Rovers' Jason Lowe and Birmingham City's Jack Butland.
There is no place for Sunderland's Connor Wickham or Liverpool's Jonjo Shelvey but Arsenal's Kieran Gibbs and Tottenham Hotspur's Steve Caulker could be included alongside the much-coveted Crystal Palace pair Nathaniel Clyne and Wilfried Zaha. Although born in Abidjan in the Ivory Coast, Zaha has elected to represent England at international level.
At a time when the England senior side have been criticised for a lack of imagination, Pearce has studded his GB squad with improvisational, pacy and versatile individuals well capable of "playing between the lines". If the loss, with a back injury, of Tottenham's Gareth Bale represents a significant blow to their chances, the inclusion of McEachran, Cleverley and, quite possibly, Zaha promises to excite Olympic crowds.
Pearce's determination to make his 18-man squad a meritocracy prompted the controversial omission of the 37-year-old David Beckham as one of three permitted over-age players in what is otherwise an Under-23 party. Instead GB's three oldies are Manchester United's Ryan Giggs, Liverpool's Craig Bellamy and Manchester City's Micah Richards.
While the latter's presence may upset those who believe Richards should have been overlooked after declining an invitation to be placed on stand-by for the England senior squad recently returned from Euro 2012, Butland's presence has required the granting of special dispensation from the Football Association.
It had originally been agreed that no player would be asked to represent England in Euro 2012 and then Great Britain during the Olympics, but this rule has been waived in the case of Butland, who travelled to Poland and Ukraine as an 11th‑hour replacement for the injured John Ruddy and did not feature in Roy Hodgson's side during the tournament.
As with Sordell, Butland – 6ft 4in and 19 years old – has recently seen more action for England Under-21s than his parent club. Indeed Butland, Birmingham's third‑choice keeper, spent much of last season on loan at Cheltenham Town. Despite immense promise, his inclusion in the England squad ahead of Newcastle United's Fraser Forster, who impressed on loan at Celtic last term, raised eyebrows.
The nearest player to a Scot included in Pearce's GB squad could be McEachran. Although he has chosen to be English for international purposes, both the Chelsea left-footer's parents are Scottish. Like the Scots, the Northern Irish FA was resistant to the concept of a GB team, which it felt threatened their future autonomy as a national association. The depth of such feeling in Glasgow and Belfast may help to explain the likely lack of Scottish and Northern Irish players in what appears almost certainly an exclusively Anglo-Welsh party.
Pearce, who is expected to explain his reasons for overlooking Beckham on Monday, plans to limber up his players with a bonding/fitness session at a health resort in Leicestershire before flying them to a more intensive training camp in Spain. Then comes a friendly against Brazil, including their star forward Neymar, at Middlesbrough's Riverside Stadium on Friday 20 July.
The campaign kicks off six days later with the first game against Senegal – possibly featuring the Newcastle strikers Papiss Cissé and Demba Ba – at Old Trafford before Pearce's team face the United Arab Emirates at Wembley on 29 July. Their final group match takes them to Cardiff, where Uruguay are the opposition.
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