Declan Rice vows to emulate West Ham United icon Kevin Nolan at World Cup
Declan Rice doesn’t score many goals but the West Ham captain has promised to emulate a Hammers icon if he does at the World Cup.
England’s campaign will begin on Monday (21 November) when they take on Iran at 1pm UK time and the Irons man is expected to be included in the starting XI alongside Jude Bellingham as a midfield duo.
Rice will be expected to be the deeper-lying of the duo but if he does end up scoring, he wants to run off doing the chicken as Kevin Nolan used to when he played in the claret and blue.
“I did promise Kevin Nolan my next goal, I’d run off and do the chicken,” he said to The Mirror. “I think I’d end up doing ten celebrations at once.
“Honestly, if you sat down with every player, I think they’d say the same thing, you never know how far you can go in football. If you believe and push yourself then anything is possible and now we are on the biggest stage.”
Integral
If Gareth Southgate’s side has any chance of lifting that famous trophy in Qatar and making it an incredible year for English football after the Lionesses’ success, then Rice has to be absolutely on his game.
There is a reason Southgate has refused to drop him for the majority of England games over the past few years and while this is set to be his first World Cup, he should perform in a familiar system.
In a very short space of time, he has become the Three Lions’ glue that holds the entire team together in a role not too dissimilar to what he does for West Ham every week.
It won’t be ideal for David Moyes if England go all the way with Rice playing every single minute but West Ham have to put their selfish priorities aside, of course, when the World Cup is now finally upon us.