West Ham United star Declan Rice would be captain in Premier League all-star game
In Declan Rice, West Ham United have one of the world’s best holding midfielders and Todd Boehly has suggested a way to prove it.
The new Chelsea owner, who has not held his cash back in the transfer market and now splashed £20million on Graham Potter and his team, suggested that the Premier League should take a leaf out of America’s book.
He wants to see the most watched football division in the world put on an all-star game similar to that of the MLS and other American sports to help fund the entire pyramid.
“Ultimately I hope the Premier League takes a little bit of a lesson from American sports,” he said, as quoted by The Athletic. “People are talking about more money for the pyramid, in the MLB All-Star game this year we made 200 million dollars from a Monday and a Tuesday.
“So we’re thinking we could do a North versus South All-Star game for the Premier League, for whatever the pyramid needed quite easily.”
If such an idea were to come to fruition, no matter how unrealistic it is with an already chaotic schedule to get through every season, then Rice would be the West Ham player who walks into the side for the south.
Even up against the likes of N’Golo Kante and Jorginho in his position, the England international would be the manager’s first choice no matter who it ends up being.
Not only would he start, though, but he would also be one of the leading candidates to take the captain’s armband for the one-off show-stopper with the likes of Cesar Azpilicueta at Chelsea and Harry Kane at Tottenham Hotspur.
Other Hammers would have to be considered such As Jarrod Bowen but he may be more likely to be on the bench with Raheem Sterling and Heung-Min Son also in the southern section.
New recruit Lucas Paqueta is another with a shout at being involved in this hypothetical game as is Kurt Zouma in defence and maybe even strikers Michail Antonio and Gianluca Scamacca.