The English men’s squad features a mix of youth and experience with eight players making their English Under-21 debut in Spain, albeit three of that number have played for Great Britain in the Sultan of Johor Cup.
The majority of the side play their club hockey with university clubs with seven of the panel hailing from Loughborough Students, five are with Exeter University, two play with Nottingham University while there is one each from Sheffield Hallam and Durham University.
The only two outside of this system are Ted Graves from Bowdon and Olly Bennett who is not yet in third level, playing his hockey with Whitgift School and Oxted on the club front.
Max Anderson will captain the side where they will feature alongside seven other teams including Belgium, Spain and Germany in the group phases. He is one of two players – along with Patrick Rose – who came up through hockey in Ulster and played for Irish underage teams before switching to England.
Matthew Hughson, meanwhile, previously represented Scotland in Ghent two years ago before playing with England at an Under-21 invitational tournament in Düsseldorf last summer.
Rory Penrose is one to watch in front of goal. He scored in each of England’s last three games in his first Euro Under-21 campaign.
His side will be looking to improve on their sixth place finish in 2022 in Ghent, their first time outside the top five since 1981. As GB, many of these players ended in fifth place in the Sultan of Johor Cup with good wins over South Africa, New Zealand and Malaysia.
They have an all-star coaching team with former England internationals Jon Bleby and EuroHockey Hall of Famer Barry Middleton on the ticket.
Overall, they have three European silver medals – the most recent in Valencia in 2019 – along with two bronze medals from 19 previous editions of the competition.
