Harry Maguire's World Cup contribution for England has been hailed by Stan Collymore — but Bukayo Saka was his Three Lions Player of the Tournament.
Manchester United centre-back Maguire has had a torrid time of it this year, copping flak for his performances for both club and country. Despite his club captain status, he has even been dropped by Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag and has managed just three Premier League starts for the Red Devils this season.
However, former Liverpool, Nottingham Forest and England star turned Mirror Sport columnist Collymore reckons he was among England’s top three players in Qatar. With only Borussia Dortmund’s Jude Bellingham and Gunners ace Saka ahead of him in the pecking order.
Collymore said: “ Harry Maguire has done well, he was very steady, 8/10. But it would be between Saka and Bellingham for my England Player of the Tournament and I’m going to go with Saka.
For 60, maybe 70, per cent of all the time he was active on the pitch, he wanted to make things happen, his performances were excellent, he scored goals, so it’s him just above Bellingham. I thought Bellingham dropped off a little in the USA game, although none of them were great in that game.
“While people may well talk about Bellingham for longer, and I’ve a feeling as well that he will be the man for the longer course, Saka was England’s best player by quite some distance. What will be interesting to see is how Saka deals with the weight on his shoulders when clubs potentially start coming in to try to sign him.”
Collymore reckons the fact Saka, Bellingham, Maguire and Co reached the quarter-finals this time meant they were about par for the tournament but that at the 2026 Euros in Germany, par for the Three Lions will be the semi-finals.
He added: “With hindsight, I might have said the semis would have been par but I keep coming back in my mind to where we were after the summer’s Nations League games and the fact that, in Antoine Griezmann, we came up against a man who absolutely knew what he was doing at that stage of a tournament in the role he was playing.
In France, we also came up against a team which knows how to win at the business end of a tournament in a way we still don’t. Those of you whose glasses are half-full would probably say we were the better side and on another night Harry Kane would have scored both penalties and we’d have gone through.
“Those whose are half-empty might say, ‘Yes, but they still beat us and they did it without three of their best players in Paul Pogba, N’Golo Kante and Karim Benzema’.
"Either way, it was about what I expected from England and, if anything, my par bar has been raised to the semis at Euro 2026 because I expect such as Bellingham, Declan Rice, Saka and Phil Foden to all have kicked on another level by then. Preferably, Gareth Southgate will still be involved as manager, too.
“He has been brilliant in the role and semi-finals, final and quarter-finals of the last three major tournaments is certainly a vast improvement on what went before. Whatever happens in Germany in 18 months’ time, however, if he does stay on then I can see it feeling like a natural end of the road as England boss.
"And if that is the case then afterwards I’d love to see him promoted to be the head honcho of the England Men’s National Team Pathway — a role in which he’d oversee player development from the 17s through the 19s and 21s into the first team and be a mentor for whoever replaces him as manager.
"Germany did similar with Oliver Bierhoff between 2018 and 2022, albeit without much success, but Southgate would be superb in that role with England and he has certainly earned it.”
