Coach Paul Simpson hopes his U20s players can go on to become senior superstars after becoming the first English side to win a World Cup in 51 years.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s first-half goal proved sufficient to ensure an England team can boast the title ‘world champions’ for the first time since Alf Ramsey’s men did so in 1966.
Among his squad, the likes of Ademola Lookman, Calvert-Lewin and Josh Onomah have tasted Premier League football with their club sides.
Other key players in Korea are still awaiting the chance to break into their first teams, but at whatever pace they progress, Simpson hopes he has helped to nurture stars of the future.
“This is part of the development in us trying to create football players who are capable of being successful at senior tournaments and hopefully this will go a long way to helping us achieve that,” said Simpson.
“We first got together on 5 March when I was asked to step in to take the U20s.
“I asked them what they thought they could achieve. They told me they could win the World Cup.
“So we said if we want to do that we can’t take any days off, we had to be absolutely committed from that moment on and they have been.
“This is the reward for some incredible work, some incredible sacrifices that they’ve had to make.
“We’ve been away from our families for 35 days and this is what we’ve worked so hard for. It’s been a wonderful trip and our experience in South Korea has been so positive.
“We’ve been made to feel so welcome, and I hope this has a positive impact on English football.”
England set their stall out with an opening day 3-0 win over Argentina and made it through to the last-four with relative comfort.
They came from behind to beat Italy in the semi-final and Simpson concedes his team did not have things all their own way against Venezuela either, but hopes the winning feeling never passes.
“It wasn’t our best performance,” he added. “We really had to battle in the second half.
“There was so much pressure and the players defended for their lives. I suppose to win the World Cup you have to do that.
“We scored a really good goal and had some good opportunities in the first half that we didn’t make any use of.
“In the second half they were the better team, but there is more than one way to win a game of football and sometimes you have to defend, that’s what we did.
“I don’t think you can get a better feeling than when the referee blew the final whistle to know we were world champions, we’ve waited 51 years to say that as an England team. It’s an incredible feeling and I don’t think it will ever go away.
“After the semi-final I said there couldn’t be a prouder Englishman anywhere in the world. But I’ve topped that today. I can’t believe the feeling of pride I’ve got and I know that’s the same for the players.”
