Crystal Palace, Millwall, Charlton and AFC Wimbledon all have player links at 2024 European Championships
BY RICHARD CAWLEY
richard@slpmedia.co.uk
The 2024 European Championships kick off this evening with a number of players with South London connections hoping to feature in the tournament in Germany.
Crystal Palace have four players in the England squad – Eberechi Eze, March Guehi, Adam Wharton and Dean Henderson – as well as Joachim Anderson selected by Denmark.
But Charlton Athletic fans will also be hoping that youth products Joe Gomez and Ezri Konsa gain minutes for the Three Lions.
Catford-raised Gomez made 24 appearances for the Addicks, 21 in the Championship, before being sold to Liverpool in the summer of 2015.
Gomez, who was 13 when he debuted for the Addicks’ U18 team, has won 15 caps for his country.
Konsa joined Charlton at the age of 11 and played two senior campaigns in League One – clocking up 86 matches. The Newham-born centre-back moved to Brentford in June 2018, only spending one season with the west Londoners before signing for Aston Villa after their promotion to the Premier League.
Chelsea’s Conor Gallagher had highly-successful loans at Charlton and Crystal Palace.
The midfielder’s temporary move to The Valley was his first away from the Blues and his performances for Lee Bowyer’s side in the Championship saw his stay cut short in January as Swansea moved to secure his services.
Gallagher scored eight goals in 34 games for Palace in the 2021-22 season and won their Player of the Year award.
England keeper Aaron Ramsdale only had four months on loan at AFC Wimbledon but was voted into their team of the decade in March 2020.
In terms of Millwall links, there are a couple.
The obvious one to focus on is England captain Harry Kane, who was a fresh-faced striker on Tottenham’s books when he arrived at The Den in 2012.
Kane, now at Bayern Munich, scored seven goals in 22 matches on loan.
Callum Styles, who spent the 2022-23 season on loan to the Lions from Barnsley, is in the Hungary squad. He scored once for Millwall in 22 league appearances, 12 of those starts. The 24-year-old joined Sunderland in February.
Hungary have also included Loic Nego in their squad. Blink and you could easily have missed the Paris-born right-back’s stint at Charlton between 2014 and 2016, arriving from Ujpest – part of Roland Duchatelet’s network of clubs.
Nego made one Championship start for Charlton before going on to feature 311 times for Fehervar, who are signing Charlton captain George Dobson this summer.
The 33-year-old made 28 Ligue 1 appearances for Le Havre last season.