East Sussex footballer plays for England over-60s in Spain
Alan Osman, Bexhill-based captain of East Sussex men’s over-60s football team, has earned further international recognition with the England over-60s squad.
Osman was in the squad who competed against perennial rivals Wales and Northern Ireland and guest nation Denmark in this year's annual Four Nation League Format Spring tournament.
It was held in La Manga, Spain, and England began strongly in the warm sunshine with a 4-0 victory against Denmark. Osman was involved in the slick move that led to arguably England's best goal of the four.
However, the comfortable win against the Danes was as good as it got for the Three Lions, who failed to score in their remaining two matches against each of their fellow home nations.
A 1-0 defeat to Wales was followed by a 0-0 stalemate against Northern Ireland; the latter providing the men in green with the point they needed to win the tournament, with Wales finishing as runners-up.
Osman played semi pro football in Italy when he was young and is not the only East Sussex over-60s player to have played at that age group for England.
Dave Bridges, who played County League across Sussex and lives near Brighton, and Wayne Partridge, an ex pro at QPR and other clubs who went on to play for Hastings United, have also had call-ups
East Sussex over-60s also have two players in their squad who were selected for trials for England last summer, Andy Williams, from Bexhill, and Andy Cowan, from nar Brighton, who both played County League football when young.