{"id":291266,"date":"2023-10-05T11:24:33","date_gmt":"2023-10-05T11:24:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/?p=291266"},"modified":"2023-10-05T11:24:33","modified_gmt":"2023-10-05T11:24:33","slug":"defoe-reveals-eriksson-tried-to-bring-him-to-man-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/soccer\/defoe-reveals-eriksson-tried-to-bring-him-to-man-city\/","title":{"rendered":"Defoe reveals Eriksson tried to bring him to Man City"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Jermain Defoe reveals Sven-Goran Eriksson tried to bring him to Man City despite &#8216;hurting&#8217; the striker by leaving him out of England&#8217;s 2006 World Cup squad for 17-year-old Theo Walcott<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Eriksson caused a sensation when he picked the uncapped Walcott in his squad\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Defoe was placed on a stand-by list but still had to travel out to Germany\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>CLICK HERE to listen to the latest episode of Mail Sport&#8217;s &#8216;It&#8217;s All Kicking Off&#8217;\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Jermain Defoe has revealed his &#8216;hurt&#8217; at missing out on the 2006 England World Cup squad to teenager Theo Walcott &#8211; and that Sven-Goran Eriksson later tried to tempt him to Manchester City.<\/p>\n<p>England manager Eriksson caused a sensation when he picked 17-year-old Walcott &#8211; who hadn&#8217;t even played a first-team match for Arsenal at that point &#8211; over Tottenham&#8217;s Defoe for the tournament in Germany.<\/p>\n<p>Defoe, a fairly established England international, was only named on the squad stand-by list and travelled to Germany initially before returning home when Wayne Rooney was passed fit to play following a foot injury.<\/p>\n<p>Eriksson defended his decision after the tournament by saying: &#8216;Jermain had a very bad season. I don&#8217;t think he deserved to go to the World Cup. Taking Theo was the right decision.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s despite Walcott not playing a single minute during the tournament as England crashed out on penalties to Portugal at the quarter-final stage.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/05\/11\/76198459-12597383-Sven_Goran_Eriksson_caused_a_sensation_when_he_selected_uncapped-a-27_1696502323656.jpg\" height=\"500\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Sven-Goran Eriksson caused a sensation when he selected uncapped 17-year-old Theo Walcott (right) in England&#8217;s squad for the 2006 World Cup in Germany<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/05\/11\/76199319-12597383-Children_wear_E-a-28_1696502328510.jpg\" height=\"467\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Children wear England shirts with the names of those in the 2006 squad, including Walcott<\/p>\n<p>Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n<p>Chatting with Troy Deeney on the BBC&#8217;s Football Firsts podcast, Defoe said: &#8216;The boys said to me &#8216;JD, please go and speak to the boss. Tell him you have to go.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Because Theo hadn&#8217;t even played a Premier League game. The only thing that got me through that summer &#8211; because that was tough, man, I was hurt &#8211; was just seeing England fans [saying] &#8216;Jermain should have been going.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;It was nice, that was the only thing that got me through it and I actually travelled.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I was on stand-by, but the manager wanted me to travel, to be around the squad.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I remember, it was the sharpest and fittest I felt all season.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Defoe, who would finally get to represent England at a World Cup in 2010, also revealed Eriksson tried to sign him when he was Man City boss in 2007-08.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I bumped into him in Manchester, in Wing&#8217;s [Chinese restaurant] and he said to me, &#8216;do you want to come to Man City?&#8217; He said.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/05\/11\/76199227-12597383-image-a-37_1696502449338.jpg\" height=\"1033\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Defoe (bottom), speaking to Troy Deeney on the BBC&#8217;s Football Firsts show, revealed Eriksson tried to sign him when Manchester City manager despite the World Cup squad<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/05\/11\/76199477-12597383-image-a-38_1696502568715.jpg\" height=\"419\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Eriksson left the England job in 2006 and became Manchester City manager in 2007-08\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/05\/11\/76199507-12597383-image-a-39_1696502669213.jpg\" height=\"391\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Defoe did finally get the chance to play for England at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;So it&#8217;s like, &#8216;hold on, I&#8217;m good enough to play for you now.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Defoe played briefly for Portsmouth before returning to Spurs for a second stint and rounded off his career at Sunderland, Bournemouth and Rangers.<\/p>\n<p>In total, he scored 20 times in 57 appearances for England.<\/p>\n<h3>IT&#8217;S ALL KICKING OFF!\u00a0<\/h3>\n<p><span><span>It&#8217;s All Kicking Off is an exciting new podcast from Mail Sport that promises a different take on Premier League football.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span>It is available on MailOnline, Mail+, YouTube, Apple Music and Spotify.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/i\/pix\/2017\/08\/02\/636x90_facebook_ad_sport.png\" width=\"636\" height=\"90\"><br \/>\nSource: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/football\/article-12597383\/Jermain-Defoe-reveals-Sven-Goran-Eriksson-tried-bring-Man-City-despite-hurting-striker-leaving-Englands-2006-World-Cup-squad-17-year-old-Theo-Walcott.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Jermain Defoe reveals Sven-Goran Eriksson tried to bring him to Man City despite &#8216;hurting&#8217; the striker by leaving him out of England&#8217;s 2006 World Cup <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/soccer\/defoe-reveals-eriksson-tried-to-bring-him-to-man-city\/\" title=\"Defoe reveals Eriksson tried to bring him to Man City\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":291265,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-291266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Defoe reveals Eriksson tried to bring him to Man City - Sportstoft<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/soccer\/defoe-reveals-eriksson-tried-to-bring-him-to-man-city\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Defoe reveals Eriksson tried to bring him to Man City - Sportstoft\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Jermain Defoe reveals Sven-Goran Eriksson tried to bring him to Man City despite &#8216;hurting&#8217; the striker by leaving him out of England&#8217;s 2006 World Cup [...]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/soccer\/defoe-reveals-eriksson-tried-to-bring-him-to-man-city\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sportstoft\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-10-05T11:24:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeanette\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jeanette\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/soccer\/defoe-reveals-eriksson-tried-to-bring-him-to-man-city\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/soccer\/defoe-reveals-eriksson-tried-to-bring-him-to-man-city\/\",\"name\":\"Defoe reveals Eriksson tried to bring him to Man City - Sportstoft\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/soccer\/defoe-reveals-eriksson-tried-to-bring-him-to-man-city\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/soccer\/defoe-reveals-eriksson-tried-to-bring-him-to-man-city\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Defoe-reveals-Eriksson-tried-to-bring-him-to-Man-City.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-10-05T11:24:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-10-05T11:24:33+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/#\/schema\/person\/74db1979fe71b5ea01513ec1ce5bc609\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/soccer\/defoe-reveals-eriksson-tried-to-bring-him-to-man-city\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/soccer\/defoe-reveals-eriksson-tried-to-bring-him-to-man-city\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/soccer\/defoe-reveals-eriksson-tried-to-bring-him-to-man-city\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Defoe-reveals-Eriksson-tried-to-bring-him-to-Man-City.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Defoe-reveals-Eriksson-tried-to-bring-him-to-Man-City.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":675},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/soccer\/defoe-reveals-eriksson-tried-to-bring-him-to-man-city\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Soccer\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/category\/soccer\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Defoe reveals Eriksson tried to bring him to Man City\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/\",\"name\":\"Sportstoft\",\"description\":\"sportstoft.com\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/#\/schema\/person\/74db1979fe71b5ea01513ec1ce5bc609\",\"name\":\"Jeanette\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d7cef2e0d8d634cb49d54f7c48b549a1?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d7cef2e0d8d634cb49d54f7c48b549a1?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jeanette\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Defoe reveals Eriksson tried to bring him to Man City - Sportstoft","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/soccer\/defoe-reveals-eriksson-tried-to-bring-him-to-man-city\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Defoe reveals Eriksson tried to bring him to Man City - Sportstoft","og_description":"Jermain Defoe reveals Sven-Goran Eriksson tried to bring him to Man City despite &#8216;hurting&#8217; the striker by leaving him out of England&#8217;s 2006 World Cup [...]","og_url":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/soccer\/defoe-reveals-eriksson-tried-to-bring-him-to-man-city\/","og_site_name":"Sportstoft","article_published_time":"2023-10-05T11:24:33+00:00","author":"Jeanette","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jeanette","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/soccer\/defoe-reveals-eriksson-tried-to-bring-him-to-man-city\/","url":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/soccer\/defoe-reveals-eriksson-tried-to-bring-him-to-man-city\/","name":"Defoe reveals Eriksson tried to bring him to Man City - Sportstoft","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/soccer\/defoe-reveals-eriksson-tried-to-bring-him-to-man-city\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/soccer\/defoe-reveals-eriksson-tried-to-bring-him-to-man-city\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Defoe-reveals-Eriksson-tried-to-bring-him-to-Man-City.jpg","datePublished":"2023-10-05T11:24:33+00:00","dateModified":"2023-10-05T11:24:33+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/#\/schema\/person\/74db1979fe71b5ea01513ec1ce5bc609"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/soccer\/defoe-reveals-eriksson-tried-to-bring-him-to-man-city\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/soccer\/defoe-reveals-eriksson-tried-to-bring-him-to-man-city\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/soccer\/defoe-reveals-eriksson-tried-to-bring-him-to-man-city\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Defoe-reveals-Eriksson-tried-to-bring-him-to-Man-City.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Defoe-reveals-Eriksson-tried-to-bring-him-to-Man-City.jpg","width":1200,"height":675},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/soccer\/defoe-reveals-eriksson-tried-to-bring-him-to-man-city\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Soccer","item":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/category\/soccer\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Defoe reveals Eriksson tried to bring him to Man City"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/","name":"Sportstoft","description":"sportstoft.com","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/#\/schema\/person\/74db1979fe71b5ea01513ec1ce5bc609","name":"Jeanette","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d7cef2e0d8d634cb49d54f7c48b549a1?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d7cef2e0d8d634cb49d54f7c48b549a1?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jeanette"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}