Marc Richards thinks I. Toney can do the job England want from a bench forward at the 2026 World Cup. Thomas Tuchel's surprise call-up has raised eyebrows, but the former Northampton Town strike partner says Toney has the mentality, audacity and goal threat to matter when England need him, and he is expected to back up captain Harry Kane.

Why Richards trusts Toney

Richards' strongest point is not nostalgia. It is belief in Toney's temperament. Speaking to BBC Sport, he said: "If we [England] need a goal, the powers that be will rely on him to go on and come up trumps."

He added: "Playing with him at such a young age, you would never have expected him to go on to play for England at a World Cup, but he's got the mindset, the audacity and the arrogance to be there and do what he needs to do."

That is the case Richards is making, and it is a decent one. England are not asking Toney to be Harry Kane. They are asking for a forward who can change a game from the bench, and Richards is backing him to do exactly that.

The route that got him here

Toney's path makes the call-up feel unusual, even if Richards is not treating it that way. He made his professional debut at Northampton Town in 2012, had six different loan spells before joining Peterborough United, and later settled at Brentford in 2020.

The rest of the story is hard to separate from the player England are now considering. He joined Al Ahly in August 2024 for £40m. In May 2023 he was banned from playing for eight months for 232 breaches of the Football Association's betting rules. He had already scored in all four of the top divisions in English football before settling at Brentford.

That is a career with sharp turns, but Richards' point is about what England can use now. If Tuchel is willing to carry Toney as a back-up to Kane, the first test will come at the World Cup, which begins on 11 June in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

At Al Ahly, the form has been uneven. Their last five FIFA Club World Cup matches brought one win, two draws and two defeats, while they scored eight goals and conceded eight in those same five games. That suggests a team creating chances but also giving them away, which is not a bad setting for a forward who Richards sees as a live option when a game needs changing.

Written by Sam Whitfield with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 1 outlet. How we work →