Jude Bellingham in one-word salute to Everton ace Conor Coady on Instagram
Conor Coady may not have played at the World Cup in Qatar but the Everton ace is still highly-regarded by his Three Lions teammates.
The 29-year-old was in Gareth Southgate’s 26-man squad but remained unused as England were dumped out of the tournament by holders France in the quarter-finals.
Harry Maguire and John Stones were the preferred centre-half partnership with Eric Dier seen as the first-choice replacement leaving Coady little hope of getting onto the field.
Despite his lack of playing time on the biggest stage of them all, he was still lauded by his England teammates and none more so than breakout star of the tournament Jude Bellingham.
In a response to Coady’s Instagram post summing up the entire tournament Bellingham simply wrote “hero” while Jack Grealish also hailed the leader saying: “There’s great people then there’s you sir.”
Example
Southgate and Coady both probably knew there wouldn’t be much time on the pitch if any for the experienced campaigner but he was on the plane for a totally different reason.
His demeanour off the pitch and around camp is simply perfect and the manager needed that kind of player to be the link between him on the sidelines and those doing the dirty work in a game.
You will not find a better example of the model professional than Coady and the way he always conducts himself with supporters and the media, whether for Everton or England, cannot be faulted.
There will not be a person in the UK who dislikes Coady to any great extent with even Wolves fans being able to appreciate that he was forced out of the club by Bruno Lage rather than asking to leave.
If everyone was half as amazing as Coady then the world would be a wonderful place to be and the Everton squad have to strive to get as close as they can.