Gibson's pride as England face Germany in Middlesbrough

Monday 30 Mar 2015
Local Hero: Gibson trained with England in Middlesbrough on Sunday
Ben Gibson says representing England at the Riverside Stadium will ranks as one of his career highlights to date.

The Middlesbrough defender will be lining up for the Under-21s when they take on Germany at his home ground on Monday night.

And with almost 30,000 tickets sold for the game, Gibson cannot wait to run out in front of his own fans wearing the Three Lions.

England v Germany

U21s International Match
7.45pm, Monday 30 March 2015
The Riverside Stadium, Middlesbrough
Live on BT Sport

"It will be one of the proudest moments of my career, without a doubt," he said, after training at Boro's Rockliffe training ground on Sunday.

"To represent your country anywhere is a fantastic honour and to do it with this bunch of lads at the Riverside against Germany, it doesn’t get much bigger for me personally.

"It’s a dream come true really."

The 22-year-old says that ticket requests for the game from family and friends are "in the hundreds" as Gareth Southgate’s side prepare for one of their final games before this summer’s Euro Finals in Czech Republic.

With Boro flying high in the Championship and aiming for promotion, mood among the local fan base is at a high and Gibson believes it will all contribute to an excellent atmosphere in his home town.

"There’s been a really high demand across the board for this game, the fans have backed the team really well and come out to support us in what is a massive game before the summer," he added.

"Hopefully we’ll be able to reward them with a good performance on the night.

England Under-21s defender Ben Gibson.

Gibson has been a crucial part of the team which qualified for the Euro Finals in Czech Republic

"It’ll be huge and if we [Middlesbrough] could win promotion this season, it would be my biggest achievement as a player, to get this town, my town, back into the pinnacle of football. 

"The Premier League is where you want to be and we haven’t been there in a while, but that’s where we were when I was a kid and I know what the club is set up for.

"You see the training facilities and it’s built as a Premier League club, so to get us back there would be amazing and it would be nice going into the tournament this summer on the back of winning promotion."

England have already played Portugal, France and Czech Republic since securing their qualification for the Finals last October.

Germany are another nation who will be competing for the trophy in June, so Gibson and the rest of the squad are looking forward to pitting their wits against a side who will travel to Czech Republic as one of the favourites.

"It’s been good to give ourselves markers," he revealed.

Take a look at our best five goals from U21 training this week

"We’ve played most of the sides, bar a few, that will be in the tournament this summer and this will be no different.

"It will be a really tough game and one in which we want to test ourselves against a good side.

"We want to go into the tournament this summer knowing that we can’t just compete against these sides, but beat them.

"We’re very confident that we are and we’re looking forward to going out there to face a tough Germany side."

Tickets for the game at the Riverside are still on sale. Call 0844 499 1234 for more details.

By Nicholas Veevers Content Manager - FA Owned Channels in Teesside