{"id":637827,"date":"2024-03-26T10:13:30","date_gmt":"2024-03-26T14:13:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=637827"},"modified":"2024-03-26T10:14:38","modified_gmt":"2024-03-26T14:14:38","slug":"declan-rice-england-captain-belgium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2024\/03\/26\/declan-rice-england-captain-belgium\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Brilliant&#8217; Arsenal Star to Captain England Against Belgium"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Declan Rice will wear England\u2019s captain armband for the first time on Tuesday. The Arsenal star further cements his place as a key player in Gareth Southgate\u2019s squad ahead of the European Championship.<\/p>\n<h2>Southgate Confirms New England Captain Ahead of Belgium Clash<\/h2>\n<h3>A Wonderful Debut Campaign at Arsenal<\/h3>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"THREE WAY WAR - Who Wins The Premier League?\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6XQStPx9Lw0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not easy to live up to expectations that a \u00a3105 million deal creates, but that\u2019s exactly what Declan Rice has been doing since joining Arsenal. The 25-year-old has quickly found his place in the Mikel Arteta\u2019s midfield setup, playing a key role in their push for the Premier League title.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read More<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2024\/03\/08\/players-who-should-have-won-more-england-caps\/\" target=\"_self\">Five Players Who Should Have Won More England Caps<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The former West Ham star has started all of Arsenal\u2019s 28 Premier League matches so far this season, directly contributing to 12 goals. After finding his big break in the Premier League, he is now set to take a major step forward in his international career.<\/p>\n<h3>Declan Rice Reacts to Receiving England Armband<\/h3>\n<p>Rice first <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whufc.com\/news\/articles\/2019\/december\/28-december\/team-news-fabianski-returns-reid-bench-rice-named-captain\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">captained<\/a> West Ham when he was only 20 years old but remained their second-choice skipper until Mark Noble retired in 2022. The midfielder has long been known for his leadership skills and now has the opportunity to showcase it at the international level.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read More<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2024\/03\/14\/joe-gomez-england-squad-2024\/\" target=\"_self\">Liverpool\u2019s \u2018Hidden Jewel\u2019 Called Up To Three Lions Squad For First Time In Four Years<\/a><\/p>\n<p>In a press conference ahead of England\u2019s friendly match against Belgium, Gareth Southgate confirmed that Rice will start the game with the captain\u2019s armband.<\/p>\n<p>The \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.beinsports.com\/en-us\/soccer\/uefa-champions-league\/articles\/hes-amazing--martin-odegaard-hails-brilliant-declan-rice-impact-at-arsenal-2023-11-30\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">brilliant<\/a>\u201d Arsenal star, who is set to make his 50th cap for the national team on Tuesday, reacted to the news by saying (via <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/SkySportsNews\/status\/1772289457107988643?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sky Sports<\/a>): \u201cI\u2019m speechless, to be honest with you. I\u2019m absolutely lost for words.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen he said to me last night that I was going to be captain, I gave him a hug and shook his hand and said, \u2018Thank you very much.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI owe him a lot. Since I\u2019ve come into the team, he\u2019s always made me feel at home. I\u2019ve always felt comfortable playing under him and I\u2019m really growing in confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Harry Kane linked up with the Three Lions early in the international break. However, the England captain couldn\u2019t recover in time for the match against Belgium due to his <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2024\/03\/18\/bayern-munich-harry-kane-injury-arsenal\/#:~:text=Bayern%20Munich%20Sweating%20Over%20Fitness%20of%20Key%20Attacker%20Ahead%20of%20Arsenal%20Clash&amp;text=Harry%20Kane%20limped%20off%20the,England%20teammates%20despite%20the%20injury.\" target=\"_self\">ankle injury<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3>From Ireland Debut to England Captaincy<\/h3>\n<p>Declan Rice played for the youth ranks of Republic of Ireland before making his senior international debut for them in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.the42.ie\/ireland-turkey-report-3921212-Mar2018\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">match against Turkey<\/a> in March 2018. However, less than a year later, an approach from England changed his mind and convinced him to continue his international career with the Three Lions.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read More<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2023\/09\/06\/rice-becomes-arsenal-legend\/\" target=\"_self\">How \u00a3105m Star Has Made an Immediate Impact at Arsenal<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Gareth Southgate handed Rice his first appearance for England in a Euro 2020 qualifier against Czech Republic. The former West Ham star went on to score his maiden goal for the national team in their 4-0 win over Iceland on November 18, 2020.<\/p>\n<p>By wearing the captain armband against Belgium, Rice reaches another career milestone ahead of this summer\u2019s European Championship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Declan Rice will wear England\u2019s captain armband for the first time on Tuesday. The Arsenal star further cements his place as a key player in Gareth Southgate\u2019s squad ahead of the European Championship. Southgate Confirms New England Captain Ahead of Belgium Clash A Wonderful Debut Campaign at Arsenal It\u2019s not easy to live up to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5073,"featured_media":637851,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[161,8,30],"tags":[443,2769],"class_list":["post-637827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-football","category-arsenal","category-news","tag-gareth-southgate","tag-international-break"],"modified_by":"Declan Wiseman, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5073"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=637827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/637851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=637827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=637827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=637827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}