Ella Toone scored another hat-trick for England in Friday’s 10-0 win over North Macedonia. The Manchester United star has been a favorite of Lionesses boss Sarina Wiegman this season and her form for club and country increasingly points to a starting role at Euro 2022.
Having played regularly for England at youth level, Toone only made his senior international debut last year but has already quickly racked up 12 appearances. In those outings, he has scored an impressive nine goals, including a penalty on his debut and two hat-tricks most recently.
A new young player on the sidelines previously, Toone was drafted into the starting XI this season once Wiegman took over and started six consecutive World Cup qualifiers from September to November. He also started the first of England’s three Arnold Clark Cup games in February, filling the rest from the bench, and was reinstated in the line-up on Friday.
It was a victory for England in Skopje, but Toone was relentless in scoring three times.
At club level this season, the 22-year-old leads the WSL in assists with eight and has scored six of her own for 14 goal contributions in 19 appearances. She has shown maturity and leadership for United this season, while it is clear that her confidence on and off the pitch has grown.
England’s opening match will be played against Austria at Old Trafford on July 6, where Toone recently shone for United in a historic game in front of more than 20,000 fans. While the Lionesses are out in less than three months, expect her to be among them. An added personal motivation.
“It means everything to me,” Toone said. 90 minutes last month about playing at Old Trafford before facing Everton. “Growing up as a United fan, this stadium is a big part of me.”
Toone offers England something different from the others in the team. She has flourished as a creative ‘number 10’ for United, displaying an ability to pick out incisive passes and a willingness to make runs past the forwards or to the sides to exploit space. She is also deceptively fast.
Chelsea’s Fran Kirby is his closest competition for a starting job this summer. Both have lined up alongside each other on occasion for England this summer, albeit against weaker opposition – Wiegman is more likely to use one or the other in a bigger tournament game.
Overall, the regularity with which he has been under the Dutch coach this season bodes well for Toone. Kirby, though currently sidelined as he rests from fatigue and works on his fitness, has been noticeably underperforming at international level since a standout tournament at the World Cup in 2015. Successive England managers have failed to draw the best of her for a number of years, which must be disconcerting for Chelsea boss Emma Hayes.
United manager Marc Skinner knows Toone better than most and has often spoken enthusiastically this season about his tremendous talent.
“He has a lot of rough edges that I don’t want to smooth over too much because he has the quality and the wonderful ability to make things happen,” Skinner reflected recently after Toone’s 100th appearance for the club earlier this month.
In a tournament setting, that game-changing quality could be just what England needs.
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