England’s Declan Rice hails ‘fearless’ Myles Lewis-Skelly

Myles Lewis-Skelly has already made himself an asset for England and has a long career ahead of him, midfielder Declan Rice said after the 18-year-old left back became the youngest player to score on his senior debut for the national team on Friday.

Lewis-Skelly opened the scoring for England in the 20th minute of their 2-0 victory over Albania in their World Cup qualifying Group K opener at Wembley.

A product of the Arsenal academy, Lewis-Skelly earned his first England call-up after impressing in his breakthrough season at the North London club.

“Week-on-week he’s shown how good he is, and the fearlessness he has in his performance,” Rice told British media of his Arsenal teammate.

“That’s on him — how much you want it and how much you want to keep going. He needs to be hungry every day. He needs to keep being himself around the training ground at Arsenal, around England, and keep pushing himself.

“He’s an asset for us now. He’s 18 years old and has got a long career in the game if he keeps doing good things.

“He didn’t even know he was going to be starting until today and I just knew he was going to have a good performance, because he has that belief in himself.”

New England manager Thomas Tuchel was also delighted with the youngster’s debut.

“He is full of confidence and very full of humour and such an open and mature character,” the German said. “Everything you see on the pitch you see off the pitch … He does it with a natural confidence and this is how he plays football.”