‘Literally flying’ – Iceland’s Sigurdsson on former team-mate Adam Wharton’s rise with England

BY ANDREW MCSTEEN

While Crystal Palace midfielder Adam Wharton was an unused substitute in England’s 1-0 loss against Iceland at Wembley on Friday, his former Blackburn Rovers teammate Arnor Sigurdsson did get onto the pitch, coming on as an 83rd minute sub.

And at the end of the game, the two swapped shirts as they went their own ways – Sigurdsson back home to watch the European Championships on television, while Wharton packed his bags, ready for his trip to Germany after being selected on Friday as one of Gareth Southgate’s final squad of 26.

“It doesn’t surprise me, no, absolutely not,” said Sigurdsson to the South London Press about the rise of Wharton, who only made his Premier League debut in February after signing for the Eagles in the winter transfer window.

“He’s an amazing football player and such a humble person as well. So seeing him literally flying now, I just said to him ‘has this sunk in yet?’. We were playing against Millwall away six months ago and now he’s going to the Euros with the biggest country in the world.

“It was just nice seeing him. I just wished him good luck at the Euros and congratulated him with everything – it’s almost too much to congratulate him with, but now, I’m just super proud of him.”

Last March, Wharton had just made his England under-21 debut, but thanks to some impressive performances against the best teams in the Premier League, the defensive midfielder caught the eye of the seniors and was called up to their 33-man training squad on 21 May by former Palace player Gareth Southgate and his England coaching staff.

Less than two weeks later, Wharton came on as a 62nd minute substitute against Bosnia and Herzegovina for England at St. James’ Park in Newcastle and had an instant impact, making and completing 36 passes in a 3-0 win.

“Absolutely I did,” said a beaming Sigurdsson when asked if he texted Wharton after he was announced in the training squad. “I also did yesterday when I saw the final (squad) that he was going to the Euros.

“He’s so humble. He’s just such a kind guy and also his brother Scott (Wharton, who is at Blackburn). I can imagine just the family; it’s two top boys. It’s been a pleasure getting to know Adam and now seeing him perform like this.

“But I knew the whole time that he was going to show everyone what he’s capable of doing and he did that. I’m really excited following him and watching him play. I saw the last game with England (Bosnia & Herzegovina); he made such a huge impact, but he’s just getting started and I know he can really reach the top.”

The delight of Sigurdsson seeing Wharton make such an impact was only, perhaps, overshadowed by the impressive way Iceland went about their job at Wembley.

The visitors scored early on, defended well and caused England – with Marc Guehi playing the whole 90 minutes and Ebere Eze coming on as a late sub in the 77th minute – any number of problems as they were unable to take a final warm-up win into the Germany tournament which starts this week.

“When it’s a full Wembley, it’s a dream for every football player to play here and playing against England is special,” said the 25-year-old. “So for us, a small country, it gives us extra motivation, especially also because we’ve beaten them before, of course, that was at the Euros but we’re playing against the best players in England.

“We enjoyed it. It was just how we defended really. We knew that they were going to have the ball a lot. They were passing it around and we were just closing the deep barriers. Also, we have the quality players and we can play quality football up front. I thought we showed that as well. It was nice coming to Wembley and taking a win.”