{"id":717988,"date":"2026-06-21T20:49:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T20:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/717988\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T20:49:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T20:49:10","slug":"from-times-square-to-england-squad-trevoh-chalobah-realises-world-cup-dream-world-cup-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/717988\/","title":{"rendered":"From Times Square to England squad: Trevoh Chalobah realises World Cup dream | World Cup 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trevoh Chalobah has always thought he would be part of an England World Cup<\/a> squad. In July 2018, the Chelsea centre\u2011half even put it on the record. \u201cOne day \u2026 believe,\u201d he posted on social media, alongside a picture of the World Cup trophy. He was 19 and had just joined Ipswich in the Championship on a season loan. The message has aged exceptionally well.<\/p>\n

Despite his faith, Chalobah did not think it would be this summer. The chance had surely gone when Thomas Tuchel<\/a> did not name him in his squad for the tournament in North America. He was close after a fine season at Chelsea, when he made a career-high 47 club appearances, but not close enough.<\/p>\n

Everything changed last Monday<\/a>, and if there is an arresting quality to the story it is because it takes in so much emotion while also offering a peek into the glamorous lifestyle of a footballer. The heartbreak belonged to Tino Livramento, who was forced to withdraw from Tuchel\u2019s squad after sustaining a calf injury in training last Sunday.<\/p>\n

Chalobah was on holiday with a friend in New York. He had been in Monaco the previous weekend for the Formula One Grand Prix before popping along the C\u00f4te d\u2019Azur to Cannes, then heading to the Big Apple on the Saturday. The plan after that was to go to Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

The funny thing was Chalobah did not see the message from Tuchel straight away. \u201cI was in Times Square,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019d gone to the shops. It was when I got back to my hotel I saw Thomas had texted but it was two hours before. I didn\u2019t see the message for two hours. I wasn\u2019t on my phone. I was just walking around.\u201d<\/p>\n

Call me \u2013 and fairly urgently \u2013 was the gist of the England<\/a> manager\u2019s words. \u201cMy heart just dropped,\u201d Chalobah says. As in, it performed a flip. Because he knew. Tuchel was not reaching out for an idle chat. \u201cI knew straight away,\u201d the defender says. And so, shortly after, there was Tuchel on a video chat. \u201cHe was smiling and he said: \u2018I have got some good news for you.\u2019 I was just over the moon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trevoh Chalobah says Thomas Tuchel tried to sign him for Bayern Munich in 2023. Photograph: William Purnell\/IMAGN IMAGES\/Reuters<\/p>\n

His World Cup dream was realised and he could not help but repost his old tweet. \u201cIt has always been a dream and that day I decided to tweet it,\u201d he says of the 2018 message. \u201cI believed that one day, hopefully I\u2019d make it. This is the No 1 moment of my career, especially because I didn\u2019t expect it 1782074950. That is the beautiful thing. To get a call like that shows that when you think all is lost or it\u2019s not going to happen \u2026 that tweet came true.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tuchel did tell Chalobah to \u201cstay ready\u201d when he named his squad and the defender tried to keep himself ticking over. Replacements for injured outfield players are permitted up to 24 hours before a team\u2019s opening match; England kicked off last Wednesday in Dallas with the 4-2 win against Croatia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Chalobah flew from New York to Kansas City, where England are based, and was there by the time the squad returned after the Croatia game. It has been a whirlwind \u2013 down to a detail about his boots. \u201cI gave them away at the end of the season,\u201d he says. \u201cMy sponsors were going to send me boots out [to the US] for me to do my own thing with a personal trainer. I was waiting for that to happen when I got to Los Angeles. I had to speed up the process when I got called up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chalobah is fighting to acclimatise after missing England\u2019s hot-weather preparation camp in Florida. He worked individually at first before taking part in his first full training session with the squad on Saturday. As Tuchel has said many times, adaptation is the name of the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs athletes you always have to be mentally ready,\u201d Chalobah says. \u201cI was in a position where I was switching off and recovering and enjoying my holidays but I\u2019ve been used to this last-minute stuff throughout my career so I was able to adapt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chalobah has had to deal with upheaval. After Ipswich, he had further loans at Huddersfield in the Championship and Lorient in Ligue 1 and there has been uncertainty in more than one pre\u2011season about his future at Chelsea<\/a>. It was most acute in 2024, when the club stripped him of his shirt number and consigned him to the so-called bomb squad of players they wanted to sell. They eventually loaned him to Crystal Palace. And yet they recalled him in January 2025 to answer an injury crisis. He is not a player willing to accept that a door is closed. He will always kick it back open.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know the player I am. I know how far I\u2019ve come. I know what I\u2019ve been through. So I can\u2019t allow those moments to define who I am or have that disbelief. I have faith. In my career, I\u2019ve always been coming in \u2013 maybe not seen as playing \u2013 but then I\u2019m always managing to play. It starts in training. Just give my all, make sure I\u2019m ready when called upon. I believe I can play a big part at this World Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trevoh Chalobah (right) shares a word with Chelsea clubmate Reece James. Photograph: Eddie Keogh\/The FA\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Chalobah\u2019s Christian faith is central to everything. \u201cThat\u2019s what I build on,\u201d he says. \u201cNo matter what happens, I know I have a foundation that I can lean on. Because of my faith, I know that those moments won\u2019t define me. I just use them as fuel to always prove people wrong and I love it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tuchel\u2019s decision to give the call to Chalobah has been questioned. Why replace a full-back in Livramento with a central defender? Would Myles Lewis-Skelly or Lewis Hall not have been better? Then again, they are left-backs; Tuchel considered Livramento primarily as a right-back. What about Trent Alexander-Arnold? Or \u2013 if a centre\u2011half was needed \u2013 what about Harry Maguire?<\/p>\n

Tuchel had reservations about Maguire\u2019s ability to be an unselfish support player, which have not been dispelled by the Manchester United man\u2019s vociferous reaction to his omission. The manager also said in March that he considered Chalobah to be ahead of Maguire \u201con the level of mobility\u201d. Tuchel\u2019s idea is that Jarell Quansah will provide cover at right-back, even left-back as well, while Chalobah will compete at right centre-half.<\/p>\n

Tuchel believes in Chalobah. He gave him his Chelsea debut in August 2021 in the European Super Cup against Villarreal, which ushered in his breakthrough season at the club. He tried to sign him from Chelsea in the summer of 2023 when he was at Bayern Munich. \u201cYeah, he tried to bring me to Bayern,\u201d Chalobah says. And the manager gave him his England debut against Senegal last June. It remains his only cap.<\/p>\n

There was a moment as Chalobah reflected on the past week or so when he was asked whether his hotel in Los Angeles was refundable. \u201cYeah,\u201d he said, with a smile. \u201cI\u2019m still trying to get my money back.\u201d Another England appearance would be priceless.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Trevoh Chalobah has always thought he would be part of an England World Cup squad. In July 2018,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":717989,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[403,99],"class_list":["post-717988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=717988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/717989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=717988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=717988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}