Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford has detailed his ambitions to help England 'go all the way' as he and his team-mates aim to make it third time lucky this World Cup.
Gareth Southgate's squad flew out to Qatar earlier this week and have been acclimatising themselves ahead of Monday's group stage opener against Iran in Doha. Pickford, who has retained his No.1 shirt, is expected to start at the Khalifa International Stadium and to continue his role as England's first-choice between the posts after an excellent start to the domestic season with Everton.
The 28-year-old has cemented his place as Southgate's ever-present starter since the 2018 World Cup in Russia, helping the Three Lions to the semi-finals before losing in the Euro 2020 final to Italy on penalties. And speaking to BBC Sounds, the Toffees stopper opened up in achieving his dream in playing for his country, but added that after consecutive heartbreak, he is hoping to help England go all the way.
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“Playing for England was a dream as a kid growing up, any kid's dream who loves football is to play for England and I have achieved that dream,” Pickford said. “My next ambition was to be number one for England and luckily, I’ve been number one since the 2018 Russia World Cup.
“Now I’ve got the opportunity to go to my second World Cup, we got beat in the semi-finals last time, got beat in the finals in the Euro’s, so we’ve tasted defeat and now hopefully it’s our turn to go beat the best and go all the way.”
While England are favourites to top Group B and progress into the knockout stages, Pickford is under no illusions regarding the size of the task. Their group is the only one in which every team is within the top 20 of FIFA's world rankings, with Iran 20th, Wales 19th and the USA 16th.
But the Everton keeper admits he and his team-mates are confident of making it past the groups, but added that it's important they focus only on Monday's opener against Iran.
“It’s a tough group,” he added. “Every international side who has qualified for the World Cup has had to come through a tough qualifying process but as England, we want to win every game we play in and take each game as it comes.
“Iran is our first group game, so our sole focus is on them. We are confident of getting out, topping the group and getting into the next round but you can’t look past your opponents in the group, and we will need to be positive and confident to get through.”
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