Sheffield United star David Brooks has undoubtedly got a bright future ahead of him. Making his debut for the Blades in 2016, the attacking midfielder has gone from strength to strength since and now looks to be one of the UK’s hottest young talents.
A former Manchester City academy player, Brooks signed for the Blades academy in 2014 before agreeing a professional contract with the club a year later. For those who follow United well enough, it will come as no surprise that Brooks is bursting onto the scenes right now, but for the rest of the country it has been a bit of a shock seeing how much wow-factor the lad possesses.
Brooks has started only three league games for the Blades this season, but he certainly highlighted just how good he can be when playing against Sheffield Wednesday in the Steel City Derby on last month, assisting one of the goals and winning the Man of the Match award. His brilliance was the icing on the cake for Blades fans after the 4-2 win against the Owls, and fans will hope that the 20-year-old can carry on his development through the season. But for Brooks himself, his performance merited a call up to the Wales national team by manager Chris Coleman – a brilliant achievement.
Brooks is eligible to play for both England and Wales. He was called up to the Wales U20 squad for the 2017 Toulon Tournament, but later withdrew in order to play for the England U20’s instead. England won the tournament, and Brooks was given the Best Player award, having scored in the final.
This summer though, Brooks was once again called upon by Wales, this time for the U21 side. He made his debut in a 3–0 victory over Switzerland, scoring the second goal of the three. Now, with his surprise inclusion in Coleman’s Wales squad for the upcoming World Cup Qualifiers against Georgia and Ireland, is it time to start getting excited about just how good he could become in time? Or is it too early to predict the 20-year-old is set to follow in the footsteps of Gareth Bale and become a world beater.
Either way, his inclusion in the Wales squad has been a shock to many up and down the country. But manager Chris Coleman has insisted that the youngster deserves the call up, saying he expects England backroom members to be a little aggravated that the Dragon’s have once again poached an up and coming star from their grasp as they did with Ben Woodburn recently.
“He’s earned it, he’s done very well and had a great couple of games in the last Under-21s camp,” said Coleman.
“He’s shown great promise for some years and luckily for us he’s chosen Wales.”
“I’m sure it will cause one or two ripples on the other side of the [Severn] bridge because it caused a bit of a stir with Ben [Woodburn].”
“He had been with us for some years and, although David has not been with us for so long, the connection is there and he’s been on our radar.”
[Quotes via Morning Star Online]