{"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":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - 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; 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