Jay Stansfield is not really a talker. A quiet, modest character, it was easy for the 22-year-old to merge into the background in the early stages of this tournament.
That has been a place that has been difficult for Stansfield to find at club level, which with a relocation of £ 15 million to Birmingham City, making him the most expensive League one player ever. Targeted by opposing fans on every ground and a 'wastage of money' labeled with every missed opportunity, a decent departure has left with England.
Stansfield won his name in Slovakia with only three England, his most recent in March 2024, and observers of the group of Lee Carsley noticed how it cost him a day or two to speed himself up.
That is also not a knock on Stansfield. Of all outfield players in this team, it is Stansfield that played at the lowest ranked level last season in League One. Here he quickly found himself in high intensity training sessions with Champions League-Stagboom Talent.
But after he flourished in the spotlight in his first start of the tournament, Stansfield's days seem to be numbered in the background. Now he is firmly central to England's offer to win back-to-back euros.
This is Stansfield's first tournament for England and at 22 he knows that there are no guarantees that he will get another one.
So to see him emptying the tank against Spain in 81 minutes against Spain, an energy bunny that was a complete scourge for the Spaniards all evening was a player who waited for his chance to make a point.
Mail Sport can reveal that Stansfield covered 10.1 kilometers in Trnava, of which 1.2 km was at 'high intensity'.
Stansfield also registered 194 intensive actions – determined as gears and delays – what most of each player was in an English shirt at night.
His high intensity was also a team height. After he was patient for his chance, Carsley received every last drop from Stansfield.
“Jay was excellent and earned more than his chance,” said Carsley.
'Jay is a very, very selfless striker, the way he accepts, the way he puts pressure on defenders.
'However, you want him to have as much energy as he stands in front of the goal because he cannot do all the other side of the game and cannot get the rewards. But I thought he was excellent. '
Stansfield is modest, rarely one to hype his own versions and that job again fell on teammates who praise him on the field and near the team bus after the 3-1 victory of Saturday evening.
“He made everyone around him a better player,” Channel 4 Pundit Joe Cole afterwards. Nobody in the dressing room of England did not agree.
There are Jamie Vardy-like tendencies to the way Stansfield occasionally penetrates as a man who has it and that has been a characteristic that England missed in a group phase where they had trouble finding a kind of rhythm in attack.
No Liam Delap complicated things for Carsley. The operation of two false nines in a 4-2-2-2 system was the decision he made and Jonathan Rowe of Marseille, who looks much more comfortable and plays wide on the left, started the three group stage, all without a goal.
Stansfield waited for his chance and came late in the 3-1 win over the Czech Republic and in the 0-0 draw with Slovenia. He got half to show what he was about in the 2-1 loss for Germany, but found it difficult.
But the message that was passed during the training sessions of England has long been that big moments will arrive for each player and in his 50th performance of the season for Club and Country, Stansfield answered the call just like Carsley knew he would do that.
“He had a good season in Birmingham and one of the great things for me that is the most impressive is the pressure he has to do with,” Carsley told Mail Sport.
“They paid a lot of money for him, received that promotion under his belt, scored many goals, so I think he's brings that to this team a big thing for us.”
He answered the call against Spain and now a date with the Dutch in the semi -final on Wednesday.