Gareth Southgate: Council leave it open on how to further recognise Crawley's favourite son's achievements

Ever since Gareth lead the England side to the World Cup semi-finals in Russia in 2018 there have been calls for the council to mark his achievements. Suggestions have included a statue or the renaming of a neighbourhood or roads.

And those calls grew every time he achieved more with the national side, including reaching two European finals – the latest being on Sunday when they lost 2-1 to Spain in Berlin.

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There was a lot of speculation whether Gareth, who grew up in Crawley and went to Hazelwick and Pound Hill Junior schools, would carry on as England manager after the latest tournament.

But today (Tuesday, July 15), he resigned from the role and said: “As a proud Englishman, it has been the honour of my life to play for England and to manage England. It has meant everything to me, and I have given it my all.”

You can read Gareth Southgate’s full statement here.

We asked Crawley Borough Council whether they had plans to mark his achievements as England manager.

Leader of Crawley Borough Council, Councillor Michael Jones, said: “Gareth Southgate is a son of Crawley who grew up here, went to school here and learnt a lot of his football here.

"We’re tremendously proud of what Gareth has achieved and we have previously awarded him the Pride of Crawley award at the Crawley Community Awards. In terms of any further recognition this is a conversation that would need to take place with Gareth in due course."