Declan Rice

England

Rice has cemented his spot in front of the back four, where his defensive discipline should provide the foundation for the more creative members of the squad (including his best mate Mason Mount) to flourish. It's not been a completely smooth road to this point – he represented the Republic of Ireland at youth level and in three friendlies before switching his allegiance to England, and was released by Chelsea as a teenager, a decision he puts down to growing pains: “I’m a big lad now but back then I was quite tiny...