Bukayo Saka singles out two England teammates as he makes World Cup prediction

Bukayo Saka is excited for England’s November internationals, with the returns of Phil Foden and Jude Bellingham adding a fresh dimension despite World Cup qualification being assured

Bukayo Saka believes England are ready to make more “beautiful” memories at next year’s World Cup. Arsenal winger Saka made his World Cup debut in Qatar in 2022 and it remains a career highlight even though England crashed out to France at the quarter final stage.

But Saka – who scored twice in his first game, a 6-2 win over Iran – believes they can go even further next summer in the United States. England star Saka told the BBC: “Even though it does feel like it’s far away, you know it’s going to come quickly and the World Cup is beautiful. It’s one of the biggest tournaments that exists and everyone wants to be involved.

“It’s just about trying to stay in good shape, keep in good form and try to make sure that you try and get selected and you’re able to be involved in the World Cup because it’s something that you know doesn’t happen a lot, so you have to enjoy those things.

“That was a beautiful World Cup. That was my first. I remember my debut, I scored two goals. I was over the moon. I was like ‘it’s the World Cup’, you know? I was just enjoying every moment.

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“Obviously, it was a shame to go out to France. I always felt we could have won that game but it’s done, it’s in the past and hopefully this one we can go further.”

Saka says England are in great shape having qualified with six straight wins without conceding a goal and confidence is high that they can develop as a team.

“I think it’s the cohesion we have with each other, the chemistry, the hunger,” he said. “You can see it on the pitch and in the results as well that we’re getting, so we just want to keep building on that.

“We’ve already qualified, but we don’t want to take our foot off the gas. I think also it’s even better the manner that we did it; six games, all wins, all clean sheets, so, yeah, we couldn’t have done it in a better way.

“We feel the team is constantly growing together, better relationships, better performances, so, yeah, it’s all positive.”

Saka also says that the return of Jude Bellingham and Phil Foden to the squad is exciting and they can bring extra quality even if squeezing them all into the same line-up leaves boss Thomas Tuchel with a selection headache.

He added: “I don’t know how it’s going to work because obviously we haven’t trained yet, but he’s a top manager, Thomas Tuchel, and he knows what he’s doing. So, of course, very exciting.

“These guys are two top players and we’re more than happy to have them back in the squad because, like I said, they’re top players and the talent they’ve got is going to bring a lot of quality to the team.

“So it’s very exciting. We’re in a good place as a team and looking forward to what’s coming in this camp.”

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