March 28 2017

Gareth Southgate

England manager Gareth Southgate admits there was nothing he could do to stop Wilfried Zaha switching to play for Ivory Coast.

Southgate says that Zaha was the first player he went to see after he was given the manager's job permanently following Sam Allardyce's departure.

He tried coax Zaha – who had won a senior England cap during Roy Hodgson’s tenure – into committing to the Three Lions but claims the Palace winger had already made up his mind to play for the country of his birth.

Southgate said: "I don’t think anyone would have questioned Roy for not bringing him in last season. And in September [when Allardyce was manager] it would have been similar.

"I had three days to pick a squad in October and then in November I had the chance to look a little bit further but we’d won the game in October and I was pleased with the squad.

"I didn’t really appreciate there was this disappearing egg timer on him going to the Ivory Coast. He was the first player I went to see when I got the job permanently but he’d already made his mind up.

"The Ivory Coast had been talking to him and his family for a long period of time and obviously it had been a couple of years that he had been out of the England fold. We hoped to have him as an option for us but there was nothing we could do about it."

Former Palace midfielder Southgate wants players to be totally committed to playing for one country and not think of any other nation if they have dual nationality.

He added: "For me it’s different from a club. If you don’t feel that internal 100 per cent passion for England, then I’m not sure it’s for me to sell that to you. It should be your desire to do it. Although I’m always willing to sit down with players, it should be them coming to us.

"I get that we are competing against other countries and players want to feel valued at all times. But the inherent desire of wanting to play for your country is the most important thing.

"For me, when you’re building an international team, [Jermain] Defoe is a classic example – his whole life has been a desire to play for England right from Under-16s all the way through. I don’t think if you’d approached him later to play for someone else that he’d have done it.

"That’s where I was with it – I didn’t get capped until I was 25 and I had no interest in playing for anyone else. I’m English and proud to be English and I think part of your identity as a national team has to be pride in the shirt. So the commitment has to come from the player."