England head coach Sven Goran Eriksson has admitted that he may have taken the biggest gamble of his long and illustrious footballing career by taking teenager Theo Walcott to the World Cup, without ever having seen him in action.

Eriksson has never seen the 17-year-old Arsenal striker play a single match in person, only on videotape, but yet has chosen to take him to Germany.

The pacy young forward, who moved to the Gunners from Southampton and is a product of the Saints' Academy, hasn't even made his debut for the North London side and has never played a Premiership game. Despite this, Eriksson is convinced he has the right temperament to handle the pressure of the big stage.

If Walcott features for The Three Lions then it would make him England´s youngest ever international footballer.

After naming the squad on Monday, Eriksson said: "Maybe it is my biggest, bravest, boldest gamble. It is a bit of a gamble. If you take a 17-year-old boy to the World Cup of course you cannot be sure. The feeling is that he is ready for it. I don´t think he will be nervous or feel the pressure."

England squad for World Cup Finals in Germany 2006 in full:

Goalkeepers:

David James (Manchester City)
Paul Robinson (Tottenham Hotspur)
Robert Green (Norwich City)

Defenders:

John Terry (Chelsea)
Sol Campbell (Arsenal)
Rio Ferdinand (Manchester United)
Ashley Cole (Arsenal)
Gary Neville (Manchester United)
Jamie Carragher (Liverpool)
Wayne Bridge (Chelsea)

Midfielders:

David Beckham (Real Madrid)
Steven Gerrard (Liverpool)
Frank Lampard (Chelsea)
Michael Carrick (Tottenham Hotspur)
Owen Hargreaves (Bayern Munich)
Jermaine Jenas (Tottenham Hotspur)
Stewart Downing (Middlesbrough)
Joe Cole (Chelsea)
Aaron Lennon (Tottenham Hotspur)

Strikers:

Wayne Rooney (Manchester United)
Michael Owen (Newcastle United)
Peter Crouch (Liverpool)
Theo Walcott (Arsenal)

Players on stand-by:

Scott Carson (Liverpool)
Luke Young (Charlton)
Nigel Reo-Coker (West Ham United)
Jermaine Defoe (Tottenham Hotspur)
Andrew Johnson (Crystal Palace)

Bookmark/Search this post with:

delicious | digg | google | yahoo | technorati