Turgott's World Cup dream

Blair Turgott is dreaming of becoming the fourth West Ham United and England player to become a FIFA World Cup winner.

The Academy midfielder has been named in England's squad for the FIFA U17 World Cup finals, which take place in Mexico between 18 June and 10 July.

Should the 17-year-old help the Young Lions to win the tournament he would, of course, follow in the footsteps of Bobby Moore, Martin Peters and Geoff Hurst, who famously lifted the Jules Rimet trophy back in 1966.

Turgott believes England have a fantastic chance of being crowned U17 world champions for the first time in the nation's history.

"It's definitely going to be a great experience, as playing at the World Cup at any level is a massive thing for any footballer. It should be good," he told whufc.com

"U17 is the first age-group level at which a World Cup is held, so this is our first opportunity to play in such a massive tournament.

"Mexico have been preparing for this tournament for two years, so they will want to put on a good show. Hopefully we'll get to see some of the country when we're not training and playing, too.

"I think we should be confident of giving a good account of ourselves. I don't see why we cannot go out there and win it."

England qualified for the World Cup courtesy of reaching the semi-finals of the UEFA European Championship finals, which were held in Serbia in May.

Despite being beaten 1-0 by the Netherlands in the last-four, Turgott believes England have what it takes to go all the way in Mexico, where they have been paired with Uruguay, Canada and Rwanda in Group C.

"We didn't do ourselves justice at the EUROs and we're determined to make up for that at the World Cup. Holland are going to be tough opponents again and you can never rule out Brazil, either, but we feel we've got a good chance.

"In our group, we have got Uruguay, who came second in the South American Championship, and Rwanda, who finished second in the African Championship, so it's not going to be easy. As England, though, we should feel that we can play our game and we can beat any team we come up against."

Aside from Turgott himself, the West Ham youngster has earmarked Chelsea defender Nathanial Chalobah and Everton forward Hallam Hope as two players to watch at the tournament.

Before they kick-off against Rwanda in Pachuca on 19 June, however, John Peacock's squad will leave nothing to chance in their preparation for the competition.

"We fly out to Mexico on 8 June and will train at a camp in Mexico City. We've got a warm-up game against Ivory Coast at the Azteca Stadium on 12 June which will be an amazing experience as it holds about 106,000!

"After that we travel to Pachuca to our training base there before we get going against Rwanda.

"All being well, we'll be out in Mexico for five weeks, but I won't mind that if we win the World Cup."