Michael Chopra believes a certain Leicester man can go on and create history

This article is part of Football FanCast’s Pundit View series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent quotes from journalists, pundits, players and managers…

Former Cardiff City striker Michael Chopra believes Leicester City’s Hamza Choudhury can make history by becoming the first-ever British-Asian to play for the England senior side.

What’s he said?

The young midfielder made his Foxes Premier League debut under Claude Puel in November 2017 and has only featured in short spells ever since – not playing more than nine times in any one season.

That looks as if it is changing as Brendan Rodgers clearly sees a spot for him amongst the first-team – the 21-year-old has started all three league matches as well as their Carabao Cup game against Newcastle in midweek, per Transfermarkt.

Choudhury has a mixed background of Bangladeshi and Caribbean heritage but has appeared seven times for England’s Under-21 squad in the past year, including at this summer’s European Under-21 Championships.

Chopra, who was a British-Asian Premier League player himself believes the 5 foot 10 midfielder has every chance of playing for the senior side, he said:

“If you look at the boy at Leicester, Choudhury, I think he is the only one at this moment in time who has got a chance.

“He’s playing in the Premier League as a young boy.

“Whether they are good enough to play for the England national team is another thing because there is so much competition and there are so many good young English players.

“Hopefully an Asian player will come through and play for England at some stage but we still could be talking about it taking some time.”

A realistic possibility

Choudhury has grown into Rodgers’ first-team plans by not only impressing during training and on the pitch for the Foxes, but also when he’s featured for the Young Lions.

It’s his aggression in the tackle that the Northern Irishman loves so much and when you look at who has that in the current national side only Jordan Henderson really comes to mind.

Long-term, he is unlikely to be the answer – the Liverpool midfielder has averaged 1.4 tackles per game in every Premier League season he’s played.

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It wouldn’t be a surprise to see the 21-year-old make the transition into the senior setup at some point in the future.

Not only would it earmark a cultural moment in history but it would be his just deserts for the performances he’s shown in the west Midlands and beyond.

After all, he’s already shown he can perform against the best, earning a match rating of 7.1, per WhoScored, against Chelsea last season.

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