England’s forgotten 2018 World Cup stars: where are they now?

The Mandela Effect is a psychological phenomenon in which scores of people find themselves sharing the same false memory, in spite of said memory never taking place.

It got its name from the widespread belief that South African human rights activist Nelson Mandela had died in prison in the 1980s – despite Mandela leaving prison and going on to become President of South Africa, not passing away until 2013.

Another example of the Mandela Effect can be found within England’s 2018 World Cup squad. Millions of England fans will tell you that this was, at the time, the most well-rounded England squad in decades, full of well-liked players and entirely deserving of its eventual run to the semi-finals that year.

Or was it?

Harry Symeou hosts Andy Headspeath, Toby Cudworth & La Liga TV presenter Semra Hunter to look back on the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa – join us!

If you can’t see the podcast embed, click to download or listen to the episode in full!

Upon closer inspection of that squad, readers might be shocked to find that Gareth Southgate’s first England tournament squad actually contained Phil Jones. Yes, that Phil Jones. The one who has been at Manchester United since 1904 despite playing just 12 games in that time. The eternal joke of English football, the gurning wonder in the flesh. That Phil Jones.

This really begs the question: what else don’t we remember about the 2018 England squad? Who else stowed away on the plane to Russia without us realising, and where are they now?

Let’s take a look at some forgotten England names of yore.

It seems hard to believe now, but Danny Rose travelled to Russia as comfortably England’s best left-back, and one of the best in the Premier League at the time.

This was the era when Luke Shaw was still being bullied by Jose Mourinho, while Ben Chilwell was little more than a twinkle in Claude Puel’s eye. While injuries cut Rose’s top-level career short, the then-Spurs defender was a no-brainer for inclusion back in 2018.

Southgate’s England was tactically still in its infancy back in 2018, with the manager settling on a slightly stodgy 5-3-2 formation for the World Cup.

Though it provided defensive solidity, it also inhibited the side at times going forward – and forced us to watch Jesse Lingard, Raheem Sterling and Dele Alli all take turns at playing out of position in a…