Thomas Tuchel threw a couple of curveballs in his first England squad since taking over as manager with a recall for midfielder Jordan Henderson and a potential first cap for defender Dan Burn.
The German took over as Three Lions coach at the start of the year and on Friday evening announced his 26-man squad for the World Cup qualifiers against Albania and Latvia at Wembley Stadium on March 21 and 24, respectively.
And two names that immediately stood out were those of Ajax's Henderson, now 34, and towering Newcastle centre-half Burn, earning a first call-up at the age of 32.
Henderson won his 81st and last England cap in November 2023 having fallen out of favour with previous manager Gareth Southgate after an unsuccessful spell in the Saudi Pro League with Al Ettifaq.
The former Liverpool captain moved to Dutch side Ajax after playing just 17 games in the SPL but failed to make the cut for last summer's Euro 2024 squad.
Henderson has been a consistent performer in the Eredivisie with Ajax currently eight points clear at the top after 25 games.
He has made 38 appearances already this season, also helping Ajax reach the last-16 of the Uefa Europa League where they were comprehensively beaten by Eintracht Frankfurt 6-2 over two legs.
And on Friday, Tuchel hailed Henderson as “a serial winner” who deserves his spot back in the squad.
“He's captain of Ajax. What he brings to every team is leadership, character, energy and personality.
“He makes sure everyone lives by the standards. He embodies everything we try to build. We want to build a team our fans are proud of.”
Burn, meanwhile, will go into Sunday's League Cup final against Liverpool on a high after his call-up.
The 2.01 metre-tall Geordie defender's career has seen him play his up the football pyramid after being released by hometown club Newcastle an 11-year-old.
Burn has seen his career trajectory go from playing non-league footballat Blyth Spartans and Darlington to starting and scoring in the Uefa Champions League with Newcastle – and now a potential first England cap.
“We started to work with Dan when we did in our relegation battle, such an inspiring guy,” said Magpies manager Eddie Howe ahead of this weekend's clash with the runaway Premier League leaders at Wembley Stadium.
“A very talented player and a great story, one of the great footballing stories really. A great comeback, someone who had to do it the real hard way coming through the leagues.
“He’s dedicated, professional, a leader, a real man and inspirational figure.
“He’s been given great strengths, his size and his height, they are brilliant weapons to have on a football pitch, particularly as a centre-half, but then you’ve got to improve all the other areas of your game to see that as a big strength. He’s done that for me.”
Another player Tuchel has brought back into the England set-up is Marcus Rashford, currently on loan at Aston Villa from Manchester United.
Like Henderson, the 27-year-old failed to make Southgate's Euro 2024 squad and last played during the defeat against Brazil in March 2023.
Having had his attitude called out in public by United manager Ruben Amorim and continually left out of the Portuguese's match-day squads, Rashford moved to Villa in January desperate for game time.
Despite only starting four of his nine appearances at the Midlands club, Tuchel has seen enough to warrant a call-up for the attacker who has scored 17 goals in 60 games for England.
“I felt that Marcus had a huge impact since he since he changed to Aston Villa,” Tuchel said. “He made a huge impact from the bench, mostly from the bench.
“The impact was impressive, the physical impact was impressive and, most importantly, the impact against the ball, his work rate, his defensive effort, his hard work in counter pressing, his tracking back on his position, was impressive.
“I had the strong feeling that we should nominate him, we should bring him in, to push him to stay on that level, to not fall back in old routines. It was very impressive.
“This camp is to bond with him, to get to know him, and push him to stay on exactly that level.”
As well as Burn, there were three other players hoping to earn a first cap in Burnley goalkeeper James Trafford, Liverpool defender Jarell Quansah and Arsenal's teenage full-back Myles Lewis-Skelly.
Chelsea right-back Reece James, who played under Tuchel at Chelsea, and Tottenham Hotspur attacker Dominic Solanke both made the squad after recently returning from injuries.
There was no place for Al Ahli's former Brentford striker Ivan Toney, despite his 16 goals in 21 SPL games this season.
Tuchel made a point of mentioning James Maddison, Conor Gallagher, Morgan Gibbs-White, Jacob Ramsey and Jarrad Branthwaite as being unlucky to miss out.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Other key dates
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Finals draw: December 2
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Finals (including semi-finals and third-placed game): June 5–9, 2019
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Euro 2020 play-off draw: November 22, 2019
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Euro 2020 play-offs: March 26–31, 2020
Normcore explained
Something of a fashion anomaly, normcore is essentially a celebration of the unremarkable. The term was first popularised by an article in New York magazine in 2014 and has been dubbed “ugly”, “bland’ and "anti-style" by fashion writers. It’s hallmarks are comfort, a lack of pretentiousness and neutrality – it is a trend for those who would rather not stand out from the crowd. For the most part, the style is unisex, favouring loose silhouettes, thrift-shop threads, baseball caps and boyish trainers. It is important to note that normcore is not synonymous with cheapness or low quality; there are high-fashion brands, including Parisian label Vetements, that specialise in this style. Embraced by fashion-forward street-style stars around the globe, it’s uptake in the UAE has been relatively slow.
More on Quran memorisation:
The Details
Article 15
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Multitasking pays off for money goals
Tackling money goals one at a time cost financial literacy expert Barbara O'Neill at least $1 million.
That's how much Ms O'Neill, a distinguished professor at Rutgers University in the US, figures she lost by starting saving for retirement only after she had created an emergency fund, bought a car with cash and purchased a home.
"I tell students that eventually, 30 years later, I hit the million-dollar mark, but I could've had $2 million," Ms O'Neill says.
Too often, financial experts say, people want to attack their money goals one at a time: "As soon as I pay off my credit card debt, then I'll start saving for a home," or, "As soon as I pay off my student loan debt, then I'll start saving for retirement"."
People do not realise how costly the words "as soon as" can be. Paying off debt is a worthy goal, but it should not come at the expense of other goals, particularly saving for retirement. The sooner money is contributed, the longer it can benefit from compounded returns. Compounded returns are when your investment gains earn their own gains, which can dramatically increase your balances over time.
"By putting off saving for the future, you are really inhibiting yourself from benefiting from that wonderful magic," says Kimberly Zimmerman Rand , an accredited financial counsellor and principal at Dragonfly Financial Solutions in Boston. "If you can start saving today ... you are going to have a lot more five years from now than if you decide to pay off debt for three years and start saving in year four."
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Fund-raising tips for start-ups
Develop an innovative business concept
Have the ability to differentiate yourself from competitors
Put in place a business continuity plan after Covid-19
Prepare for the worst-case scenario (further lockdowns, long wait for a vaccine, etc.)
Have enough cash to stay afloat for the next 12 to 18 months
Be creative and innovative to reduce expenses
Be prepared to use Covid-19 as an opportunity for your business
* Tips from Jassim Al Marzooqi and Walid Hanna
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League, last 16, first leg
Tottenham Hotspur v Borussia Dortmund, midnight (Thursday), BeIN Sports
More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
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In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
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The biog
Simon Nadim has completed 7,000 dives.
The hardest dive in the UAE is the German U-boat 110m down off the Fujairah coast.
As a child, he loved the documentaries of Jacques Cousteau
He also led a team that discovered the long-lost portion of the Ines oil tanker.
If you are interested in diving, he runs the XR Hub Dive Centre in Fujairah
The Uefa Awards winners
Uefa Men's Player of the Year: Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool)
Uefa Women's Player of the Year: Lucy Bronze (Lyon)
Best players of the 2018/19 Uefa Champions League
Goalkeeper: Alisson (Liverpool)
Defender: Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool)
Midfielder: Frenkie de Jong (Ajax)
Forward: Lionel Messi (Barcelona)
Uefa President's Award: Eric Cantona
