Former West Ham United captain Joe Cole and Borussia Dortmund star Jude Bellingham have agreed on their verdicts over current Hammers skipper Declan Rice after scoring for England against Italy.
West Ham's Rice, on his 40th senior international appearance, opened the scoring for Gareth Southgate’s side on Thursday night in Naples as England earned a 2-1 victory in their first qualifying match for the 2024 European Championships in Germany.
England were forced to play the final ten minutes of the game with only ten men when Manchester United left-back Luke Shaw was shown a red card after being booked twice in two minutes.
READ MORE: Stuart Pearce and Ally McCoist respond to West Ham’s Declan Rice amid 'harsh' Graeme Souness jab
The big story of the night was about England captain Harry Kane, whose first half penalty to put England 2-0 up saw him become his country’s all-time leading goalscorer.
However, Cole, whose playing career saw him make 187 West Ham appearances across two spells after graduating from the club’s academy, having also won the Intertoto Cup and FA Youth Cup with West Ham, said that Rice was clearly the best player on the pitch at the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium.
“He was magnificent tonight, best player on the pitch by a mile,” Cole told Channel 4.
“He took his goal well, terrible defending from the Italians who let Harry Kane drift to that far post, get his shot off, and Dec’s just alive to it.
“If that’s a centre forward doing that we’re talking about instinct and natural ability, he keeps it down, good connection into the ground and it’s enough.
“He was outstanding from start to finish tonight, he really was, and it might get lost because obviously Harry Kane’s the story, but he [Rice] was brilliant.”
Cole’s praise for Rice was echoed on Instagram by fellow England midfielder and Dortmund star Bellingham.
After the game Rice posted a photo of him celebrating his third career England goal with the caption “no better feeling.”
Responding to that post, Bellingham commented: “what a player,” to which Rice replied “superstarrr [sic].”
Rice also came up against West Ham colleague Gianluca Scamacca in the game, with the £30.5million Hammers signing coming on as a late substitute for the final two minutes.
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