Named to the England squad on Thursday, Jermain Defoe couldn’t have asked for a more successful return to the Premier League.
England boss Gareth Southgate picked Jermain Defoe to the 26-man team that will take on Germany and Lithuania next week, with first-choice striker Harry Kane out with injury.
Defoe, 34, hasn’t played for England since 2013, in the qualifiers for the 2014 World Cup, but he has 55 caps and 19 goals for his country.
When Defoe first returned to English soccer, hopes were not high for him to make a serious impact in the Premier League again. The longtime Tottenham striker had gone to play for MLS’ Toronto FC, most likely with a view to finishing his career there.
The Toronto experiment didn’t quite work out for Defoe, though, who signed with Sunderland after just one year away from home.
Now, three years later, Defoe is still kicking in the Premier League. He’s scored 33 goals in 74 appearances for the Black Cats, and has rejuvenated his career as a lethal goalscorer.
Defoe’s 14 goals this season have him sixth in the league, with one less goal (and one less year) than the 35-year-old Zlatan Ibrahimovic. To say he’s carrying the brunt of the load for Sunderland would be an understatement; the whole team has scored just 24 goals this year, and Defoe accounts for more than half of them.
In fact, Defoe is a lone bright spot on a struggling Sunderland team, who are poised for relegation after this season. Last place in the league with just 19 points, Defoe’s goalscoring is really the only thing fans have to cheer for at the Stadium of Light.
It’s hard to pin down exactly how Defoe’s managed to keep performing at such a high level at his age. Most strikers who find success in their mid-30s have the size to make up for their dwindling pace. Players like Ibrahimovic, for example, are tall and strong enough to score from balls in the air, for example.
Defoe stands just 5-foot-7 and 142 pounds, though. Aerial battles are not his strong suit, and in English soccer he’s not likely to be a physical force in the 18-yard box.
Where Defoe does excel is with the ball at his feet. Few players in England can finish with power from the distance that he can. Whether he’s given space at the edge of the box, or receives a pass with his back to goal, Defoe is always a threat with the ball on the ground.
His long-range shooting ability has been the driving factor over his 17-year career. Defoe has 157 Premier League goals to his name, which makes him the seventh leading scorer all-time since the league’s inception.
Some fans were calling for Defoe to be included in England’s squad for Euro 2016 last year, after he scored 15 for the Black Cats last season. Then-manager Roy Hodgson left him off the team headed for France, but it seems Southgate is more confident in Defoe’s abilities.
In an interview with Sky Sports, Southgate praised his scoring touch at this age, as well as the experience he brings to a younger England squad:
"“His strike rate is outstanding so I didn’t want to just look at his age and think ‘he is finished with England’.“He is somebody that is immensely proud to have represented England at every age group.“I think you get young players with a point to prove and older players with a point to prove. I think he still feels that.“He warrants the call-up. I have to look at getting results short, medium and long-term. With this squad, we are definitely nodding towards the future with some of the decisions that we are making.“But also you need senior players around that to educate some of the younger ones to show them some of the things they need to learn and also the competition is important.”"
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Defoe comes into the England squad as not only a veteran presence for youngsters like Marcus Rashford, but also a talented striker who can still do things like this at his age.
He may be 34, and not as quick as he once was, but Defoe’s accomplishments since returning to England are extremely impressive. A career that three years ago seemed on the verge of ending now has an unexpectedly impressive final act.