A Maltese youngster, Sam Magri, is currently playing for England at the FIFA Under 17 World Cup being held in Mexico.

The 17-year-old’s father is Maltese and that is why he is considered as Maltese. But he is a product of Portsmouth FC and says that he wants to grow up at that club before considering a move elsewhere.

A note on the England FA website (TheFA.com) says that the Portsmouth centre back captained the England U-16 team during the successful Victory Shield campaign of 2009 and also travelled to France in March 2010 to help England reach the final of the Montaigu tournament, where they lost to Portugal on penalties.

He has been a regular for the U-17s in 2010-11 and is a ball-playing defender whose height is useful in both penalty areas.

At Under 17 level he has, so far, played 19 matches for England, of which 11 were won, five drawn and three were lost. He also scored one goal in the process.

His first match was against Denmark on 4 August 2010. His last match was played last Thursday against Canada in the Mexico World Cup.

Magri says that if he were to continue being selected to play for England even at higher levels, then he will certainly prefer to play for that country. If not he will then consider to play for Malta.