Ben Chilwell: ‘My Aim Is to Be One of England’s Best Ever Left-Backs’

 Ben Chilwell has won five England caps since September; ‘I always knew that I had my ability,’ he says. Photograph: John Robertson
Ben Chilwell has won five England caps since September; ‘I always knew that I had my ability,’ he says. Photograph: John Robertson
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Ben Chilwell: ‘My Aim Is to Be One of England’s Best Ever Left-Backs’

 Ben Chilwell has won five England caps since September; ‘I always knew that I had my ability,’ he says. Photograph: John Robertson
Ben Chilwell has won five England caps since September; ‘I always knew that I had my ability,’ he says. Photograph: John Robertson

Ben Chilwell was in his early teens when he first came to England’s attention as one of the most promising young players around. Footage posted on social media this week, showing him nonchalantly dispatching a full-toss from Marc Albrighton as Kasper Schmeichel kept wicket, suggests that the ability with the bat is still there.

“Maybe I was an even better cricketer than a footballer,” Chilwell says. “I was in the Northants academy set-up and went to Loughborough University for three days for an ECB young England Talents [event]. Then started playing men’s cricket when I was 15. That’s when I stopped enjoying it. It was long days, 50-over games with men 15 years older who you don’t really have anything in common with, all talking about going to the pub.”

Six years on and cricket’s loss was English football’s gain. In a whirlwind start to the season, Leicester’s Chilwell has emerged as one of Gareth Southgate’s brightest young talents, winning five caps since September and performing so consistently for club and country – he played every minute in that memorable 3-2 victory over Spain and set up the winning goal for Harry Kane against Croatia last month – that there is talk of the 21-year-old becoming England’s first-choice left-back for the next decade.

“That’s my long-term aim,” Chilwell says. “Obviously, I’m not thinking too much about that because it’s a long old career and I’m taking every week as it comes. And at the moment, if I can play well for Leicester for the next few months, then hopefully I can be involved in March and then be involved in the summer in the Nations League. That’s my short-term aim. Like you’ve said there, the long-term aim is obviously to be the first-choice left-back for 10 years to come and be one of the best left-backs that England has ever had. But that’s obviously in the back of my head.”

Although Chilwell instantly felt comfortable in the England set-up, whether playing, training or enjoying the movie nights that Dele Alli organised, he is certainly not getting ahead of himself. Chatting for an hour at Leicester’s training ground, Chilwell comes across as fiercely ambitious and driven but also level-headed and mature.

He talks movingly and eloquently about Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, Leicester’s late owner, whom he still expects to walk into the dressing room before every game, and it is hard to think of many young players who would be as comfortable as Chilwell when it comes to critiquing their own performances.

“I always knew that I had my ability. But last season I had games where I was not playing anywhere near as well as I knew I could,” he says. “Although I was playing every game in the second half of the season, I had a lot of games where I looked back and thought: ‘What was I doing there?’ I watched them back and it’s frustrating because you know that’s not the kind of stuff you do.

“The Everton game was the main one. I made a mistake which cost us the first goal, maybe it was even my mistake for the second as well. And that’s difficult to come back from when you’re responsible for probably two of the goals and all the crowd are getting on to you. But at the same time it taught me a lot. Now I know how to deal with it if it happens again.”

Listening to Chilwell reflecting on his journey, it is clear that his father has been a big influence on his career. Wayne, who was born in New Zealand and moved to England 25 years ago, gave up work as a builder because he was spending so much time ferrying his son back and forth to Leicester’s academy from their home in Milton Keynes. One of those journeys, at a time when Chilwell was struggling to get a game for Leicester’s Under-16s, prompted a frank conversation.

“Thursday was when we would find out the squad for Saturdays,” Chilwell says. “My dad would drive me all the way up here and I remember every Thursday getting back in the car and my dad would turn to me and say: ‘Are you in the squad this week?’ ‘Nope’. And we would argue the whole way home.

“But, to be fair, it was good. My dad was very hard on me, in terms of: ‘Your natural talent has got you this far but …’ He was kind of right. You probably rest on your laurels, you’re not doing anything away from football, you’re being a bit lazy. You’re just coming here training. You’re probably more bothered about hanging out with your mates when you’re at home. So he got into me about: ‘Well, if you do want to carry on playing football, then you are going to have to do stuff away from Leicester as well.’ That’s when I started going to the park, practising, going for runs, on my own.”

Over the next few years everything fell into place. Chilwell accepted he had more chance of making it as a left-back than a central midfielder, which is where he played when he joined Leicester, and by the age of 18 he was representing England’s Under-21s and attracting interest from Liverpool after a loan spell at Huddersfield Town. “I loved it there,” he says.

Although he was recalled by Leicester in the title-winning campaign, it was not until Boxing Day the following season that Chilwell made his Premier League debut. The major breakthrough came four months later, when he was outstanding as a second-half substitute against Atlético Madrid in the Champions League quarter-final second leg. “I nearly scored – I still wish I had,” says Chilwell, smiling. “It was after that game when everyone said how well I did. It put me a bit more in the spotlight, which is what I wanted.”

Chilwell has not missed a minute of Premier League football this term and was recently rewarded with a new five-year contract, yet any personal success at club level is overshadowed by the tragic events at the end of October, when Vichai – the man everyone at Leicester referred to as “The Boss” – was one of five people killed in a helicopter accident. Chilwell was on his way home from the stadium when Harry Maguire broke the awful news to him. “Horrible,” he says. “It was the coldest, hardest thing to come into on the Monday.”

While everyone at Leicester has stories about Vichai’s generosity, tales have emerged from further afield too. “I went away with England last month and Harry Winks told me that he heard from Son [Heung-min] that Son was in a restaurant in London and Vichai was in there as well,” says Chilwell. “At the end of Son’s meal he’s gone to play his bill and Vichai had paid for everyone in the restaurant. Things like that, stuff that he doesn’t have to do, shows the person that he was.”

Chilwell will be up against Winks and Son on Saturday evening when Tottenham Hotspur visit the King Power Stadium. Some of Leicester’s players, Chilwell admits, are still coming to terms with Vichai’s loss, but their collective desire to bring success back to the club has never been stronger.

“It’s brought us together as a family; we’re not just teammates now,” he says. “We know what Vichai’s dreams were, so it’s up to us to make them happen. The investment being put in has given us the foundations to achieve what he would have wanted, which is to be playing in Europe and consistently be one of the best teams in the country over the next few years. That’s going to be our aim to try and do that.”

The Guardian Sport



Motorcycling-Double Dakar Winner Sunderland Chasing Round the World Record

Rallying - Dakar Rally - Prologue - Alula to Alula - Alula, Saudi Arabia - January 5, 2024 Red Bull GASGAS Factory's Sam Sunderland in action during the prologue stage REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed/File Photo
Rallying - Dakar Rally - Prologue - Alula to Alula - Alula, Saudi Arabia - January 5, 2024 Red Bull GASGAS Factory's Sam Sunderland in action during the prologue stage REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed/File Photo
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Motorcycling-Double Dakar Winner Sunderland Chasing Round the World Record

Rallying - Dakar Rally - Prologue - Alula to Alula - Alula, Saudi Arabia - January 5, 2024 Red Bull GASGAS Factory's Sam Sunderland in action during the prologue stage REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed/File Photo
Rallying - Dakar Rally - Prologue - Alula to Alula - Alula, Saudi Arabia - January 5, 2024 Red Bull GASGAS Factory's Sam Sunderland in action during the prologue stage REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed/File Photo

Double Dakar Rally motorcycle champion Sam Sunderland is gearing up to ride around the world in 19 days, a record bid that the Briton expects to be mentally more challenging than anything he has done before.

The bid, launched on Thursday, targets a record of 19 days, eight hours and 25 minutes set in 2002 by Kevin and Julia Sanders for the fastest circumnavigation of the globe by motorcycle.

To beat the feat, which is no longer recognised by Guinness World Records because of the dangers involved, the 36-year-old will have to ride 1,000 miles every day and on public roads across Europe, Türkiye and into the Middle East, Reuters reported.

A flight will take him on to the Australian outback, New Zealand and the Americas. From there, he and the Triumph Tiger 1200 go to Morocco and loop back through Europe to Britain.

What could possibly go wrong?

"I don't think you can ride around the world and cover that many miles a day without having a few hiccups along the way," Sunderland told Reuters with a grin.

"When I try and compare it to the Dakar it's going to be probably, in some sense, tougher. Not physically but mentally.

"In the Dakar you've got a heap of adrenaline, you're super focused, things are changing quite often which makes you have to react. And this is like: 'Right, those are your miles for the day, get them done'. It's more like a mental fatigue."

 

ONE DIRECTION

 

The target time excludes ocean crossings but the journey, starting in September, must go one way around the world and start and finish at the same location on the same machine.

Two antipodal points must be reached on a journey through more than 15 countries and 13 time zones. The Dakar rally covers 5,000 miles over two weeks.

"I was trying to put it into perspective for my mum the other day, and my mum lives in Poole in the south of England, and I was like 'Mum, it's like you driving up to Scotland and perhaps halfway back every day for 19 days'," said Sunderland.

"I'm on the bike for around 17 hours (a day). I set off at 5 a.m. and arrive around 10, 11 p.m. most nights. So definitely later into the day you feel that sort of mental fatigue setting in, and to stay focused and stimulated is not that easy.

"But at least I don't have dunes and mountains to deal with and other riders in the dust, and hopefully not getting lost either."

"I need to behave, let's say, I need to follow the rules of the road and be a good boy with it," said Sunderland, who announced his retirement from professional racing last year.

Sunderland will have a support crew of six travelling behind by car, for security and assistance, but the Red Bull-backed rider expects to be well ahead.

He also hopes his bid will have a positive effect.

"In the news today, it's all sort of doom and gloom in the world, with all the wars going on," he said. "And I think it's quite nice to show people that you can still get out there and experience the world for what it really is."