Marc Richards has backed Ivan Toney’s surprise inclusion in England’s 2026 World Cup squad, saying the striker’s self-belief has carried him back into contention. Thomas Tuchel’s decision was seen as coming from left field, with Toney expected to serve as a back-up to Harry Kane at a tournament that begins on 11 June in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Richards knows Toney well enough to judge the leap. The pair played together at Northampton Town in the 2014-15 season, after Toney made his professional debut there in 2012, and Richards said he has long believed the forward “certainly has an eye for goal” and has “become a focal point for any team he plays for.”
That is part of why the call-up has landed as such a surprise. Toney, 30, had not featured in an England squad for almost a year before Tuchel brought him back, and his route to this point has included spells at Newcastle United, Peterborough United and Brentford before a move to Saudi Pro League side Al-Ahli. Richards said England would know what they are getting if they need him: “If we need a goal, the powers that be will rely on him to go on and come up trumps.”
Toney’s rise has never been straightforward. After starting at Northampton, he moved to Newcastle and was sent out on six different loan spells before joining Peterborough, then scored in all four of the top divisions in English football before settling at Brentford in 2020. His career also took a major hit in May 2023, when he was banned from playing for eight months for 232 breaches of the Football Association’s betting rules, but he returned to score in England’s penalty shootout win over Switzerland at Euro 2024 and was part of the squad at that tournament.
Richards said the mindset behind that recovery is what makes Toney hard to ignore. “Playing with him at such a young age, you would never have expected him to go on to play for England at a World Cup, but he's got the mindset, the audacity and the arrogance to be there and do what he needs to do,” he said. For England, the unresolved question is not whether Toney belongs in the squad, but how much Tuchel will trust him once the World Cup starts.
