WARRIORS coach Kalisto Pasuwa’s hopes of luring West Bromwich Albion loanee Brendan Galloway were dealt a major blow after the talented young defender was yet again selected for the England Under-21 side.
BY DANIEL NHAKANISO
The Harare-born defender, loaned from fellow Premier League side Everton, has been called up for the England Under-21 side’s Euro 2017 qualifying double header against Kazakhstan on October 6 and Bosnia-Herzegovina on October 11.
Galloway’s selection into the England Under-21 side will, however, come as bad news to Pasuwa, who last month expressed optimism that he would be able to convince the player together with Burnley defender Tendai Darikwa to consider playing for the Warriors at next year’s Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) finals in Gabon next January. The duo has previously turned down the offer to play for the Warriors.
“As the technical team, we are always looking for good players and as for the England-based guys like Darikwa and Galloway, they have not been responding positively to come and play for the national team,” Pasuwa told our sister paper NewsDay recently.
“Maybe it’s because they are still weighing their options to see if they could play for Zimbabwe or England. But we will try to reconsider them in the build-up to the January tournament if they are available. They might have made a decision on the national team they want to play for,” Pasuwa added.
The 20-year-old Galloway, who is on loan at West Brom from Everton, has featured for England at junior level and reportedly fancies his chances of eventually becoming a fully-fledged England international.
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The left-back was born in Harare before relocating to England at the age of six.
Galloway wrote his own piece of history in 2011 when, at 15 years of age, he became the youngest player ever to play for MK Dons, who ply their trade in League One, two tiers below the English Premiership.
A year later Galloway was included in England’s Under-17 squad for the Nordic tournament which was held in the Faroe Islands.
While chances of Galloway donning the Warriors jersey have become slimmer due to his rising profile in England, Pasuwa will still retain some hope of convincing Darikwa.
The 24-year-old right-back was born to expatriate Zimbabwean parents in Nottingham and raised in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, which makes him eligible to represent both Zimbabwe and England.
The Burnley defender recently gave a subtle hint that he could be considering a future with the Warriors after being impressed with their victory over Swaziland in their Afcon 2017 Group L qualifier early this year.
“Well done @online_zifa on today’s result,” the 24-year-old wrote on Twitter at the time, in a post accompanying the Zimbabwean flag.
Darikwa had been called to be part of the squad in the two matches against Swaziland, but he excused himself under unclear circumstances before he was not called up for the dead rubber away tie to Guinea.
