A plethora of youngsters picked up their first caps at more senior youth levels, with one of them scoring a very important goal. We also had two (technically three) players involved with their country’s senior national teams during this break, one of those players unfortunately picked up an injury.
TRAI HUME: NORTHERN IRELAND
Hume added one cap to his Northern Ireland total, and therefore reached the milestone of 20 caps. The right back played the full 90 minutes as Norn Iron drew 1-1 with Switzerland in a friendly at Windsor Park. Unfortunately, he wasn’t involved in Sweden for his country’s next friendly (which they eventually lost 5-1) due to picking up a hip injury. A timeframe for recovery has not yet been disclosed. Next up, Northern Ireland face Iceland in a friendly in June.
CHRIS MEPHAM: WALES
Our centre back on loan from Bournemouth also played one game for his country this break. He was on the bench as Wales got their World Cup qualification campaign underway in front of home support versus Kazakhstan, Cymru running out 3-1 winners. However, Mepham did feature for the entirety of a 1-1 draw away to North Macedonia. Wales looked almost certain to be defeated late on when Bojan Miovski gave the home side the lead in the 91st minute. Luckily for y Wal Goch, David Brooks rescued them at the death to pick up a valuable point in Southeast Europe. Wales next play Liechtenstein and Belgium in qualifiers in June.
NECTARIOS TRIANTIS: AUSTRALIA
Australia earned six points from as many possible in World Cup qualifiers, defeating Indonesia 5-1 and then China 2-0. After eight games played, the Socceroos sit second in their group, three points ahead of third placed Saudi Arabia and four points better off than fourth placed Indonesia. They can’t finish top of the tree though, with Japan seven points clear. There are two games left to play and the top two qualify directly for the 2026 World Cup and then third and fourth advance to the fourth round of qualifiers. Triantis’ country face Japan and Saudi Arabia in the deciding fixtures, perhaps this time Nectarios will be involved in a matchday squad. The centre back turned defensive midfielder at Hibernian wasn’t even on the bench in either game this time round.
JOBE BELLINGHAM: ENGLAND U21S
It was a breakthrough international window for Bellingham. The young midfielder came off of the bench in a 5-3 friendly defeat to France to get off the mark for U21 caps, playing 18 minutes in total. Next up, he was handed a start in a 4-2 victory over Portugal (also a friendly) and he made his 70 minutes on the pitch count because he assisted England’s second goal scored by Ethan Nwaneri. Next up for the U21s is the group stage of the U21 Euros, where they will face Czechia, Slovenia and Germany.
ELIEZER MAYENDA: SPAIN U21S
Mayenda was also handed his first caps for his country’s U21 team. The first one came off of the bench in a 2-2 draw with Czechia (16 minutes of game time) and this was followed by cap number two, also off of the bench, in a 3-1 loss to Germany (six minutes of game time). Both matches were friendlies. Spain U21s will also next feature at the U21 Euros, playing Slovakia, Romania and Italy in their group this coming June.
MILAN ALEKSIC: SERBIA U21S
Aleksic started and played 70 minutes of Serbia U21s’ 2-0 win versus Bosnia and Herzegovina in a friendly and then he played the second half of a 3-1 friendly defeat to Georgia, during which he was shown a yellow card. Serbia U21s currently don’t have anymore fixtures scheduled.
RHYS WALSH: NORTHERN IRELAND U21S
Walsh was on the bench for all three of Northern Ireland U21s’ friendlies this month and he was given game time in the first and second of these, his first caps at an U21 level. Their results were, a 1-1 draw with Moldova, a 1-0 defeat to Ukraine U20s and a 1-0 win versus Uzbekistan. The next fixture scheduled for NI U21s is a Euro U21 qualifier against Georgia in September.
MATTHEW YOUNG: ENGLAND U20S
Matty Young was handed his first cap at an U20 level (the squad is officially named England Mens’ Elite). Young started between the sticks in a 1-1 draw with Portugal in the U20 Elite League and played the whole game. He was also named on the bench in a 2-2 draw with Switzerland U21s (a friendly). England U20s finished runners up, one point behind Germany, in the Elite League. They have no matches scheduled for the future at the time of writing.
CHRIS RIGG: ENGLAND U19S
Rigg made a big impact with his first three caps for England U19s. His debut came via the bench for 24 minutes as England U19s beat Wales 2-0 in the final stage of the U19 Euro qualifiers for 2025. He then started the second of the three qualification matches, this time managing 75 minutes total in a 0-0 draw versus Turkey. However it was the final game that was the most notable, Rigg started and played 79 minutes in a match versus Portugal and was also shown a yellow card inside the first half. Earlier on though, the young midfielder scored to make it 1-0 and it stayed that way. Only the top team of each qualification group progressed to the finals of the U19 Euros (which are taking place in June) and this goal meant England topped the group ahead of Portugal. The draw for the group stages hasn’t yet been made, so the next scheduled matches for the U19s are the first round of qualifiers for the 2026 edition of the U19 Euros. Those games are against Lithuania, Latvia and Scotland.
Dennis Cirkin was also called up for England U21s but missed out prior to any matches being played due to an injury.
