The rise of Jarrod Bowen and why he ticks every box for England and Gareth Southgate

Jürgen Klopp’s admiration for Jarrod Bowen dates back to the forward’s time in the Championship, with Hull City, and his affection towards West Ham United’s top scorer will only have grown this season. Bowen is a Klopp sort of attacker, playing with the same intensity that underpins the German’s Liverpool team, and many of those qualities also make him suited to life with England.

A first international call-up is a deserved reward for Bowen, who has evidently caught the eye of Gareth Southgate in the same way he has attracted Klopp. Speed in transition, clinical finishing, relentless workrate: these are the essentials for managers like Klopp and Southgate, and Bowen ticks every box

“Bowen, what a player he became,” said the Liverpool manager earlier this season. “Unbelievable. I saw him at Hull and he was really good, but I am not sure a lot of people expected this jump. Unbelievable player.”

David Moyes, and his bosses at West Ham, will no doubt agree. How could they not? Bowen has struck 18 goals in all competitions this season, five more than any other West Ham player, and in the Premier League he was one of only three players (along with Mohamed Salah and Mason Mount) to finish the campaign in double figures for both goals and assists.

For Bowen, a place in Southgate’s England squad marks another milestone in a career that started in the bruising world of non-League football. Rejected by Cardiff City and Aston Villa, he was given his chance by Hereford United and made his first-team debut at the age of 17. From there he went to Hull, having been spotted by former academy manager and first-team coach Tony Pennock.

There is an earthiness to Bowen’s rise, and not only because of his family’s farming roots (his uncle has a farm in Herefordshire, and Bowen regularly trains on the potato field during the off-season). There was no gilded pathway through an elite academy, no sense that he was always destined for the top flight. Instead there was perseverance and effort, on and off the pitch, and a willingness to commit everything he had to every game he played.

“He has not had that more glamorous top five, top six academy and England junior teams, where there’s a certain path,” said Southgate. “He has come a different route where he has had to fight all the way and overcome those hurdles and play in the lower divisions. It is just a reminder, as with a lot of our players, that there is not one way to get to the top.

“It is not just about a good academy education. You can learn your traits in the Football League and many of our players have. He has scored goals at every level and he has overcome each hurdle, so this is the next step for him. It is a fabulous moment for him and he shouldn’t be worried about coming into the group because his performances warrant where he is.”

“Jarrod deserves everything he gets,” says Pennock, who is now pursuing his managerial ambitions after eight years at Hull. “He works extremely hard on his game, and that is something he was brought up with. Hard work was never a problem. He is one of the players who puts in a shift, and he always has done. People notice that.”

As well as the speed and the finishing, Bowen also possesses another valuable quality: durability. He played in every league game for West Ham last season, and only missed two this campaign. In 2018-19, his last full year in the Championship, he appeared in all of Hull’s 46 league matches.

Much of this is due to his compact and powerful frame, and indeed those summer hours spent training on the farm. Bowen’s physical foundations were also strengthened in his early years at Hull, when he was withdrawn from playing matches for a few months in order to focus on building his strength.

“He is a tough boy,” Pennock tells Telegraph Sport. “He has a knack of coming through people and still keeping the ball at his feet. He gets in between defenders. When he was 17, playing in a tough division, he did not look like a kid in a man’s game.”

In terms of style, Bowen is in many ways the same forward he was when he first moved to West Ham in the winter of 2020. His game is still built on sharp movement and that deadly left foot, which has triggered comparisons with Arjen Robben from West Ham team-mates and supporters.

But he is certainly a more rounded player now, and these days his right foot can be as threatening as his left. “He can do it off both feet,” says Pennock. “It is part of his game that has improved massively, and it needed to for him to take the next step.”

A theme of Bowen’s career has been constant, consistent progression. He improved with each year at Hull, scoring at a faster rate with every passing season, and he is now doing the same at West Ham: last year he struck eight goals in the Premier League, this year he finished with 12. His public profile has grown accordingly, aided by his relationship with TV personality Dani Dyer, daughter of Danny Dyer, the West Ham-supporting actor and presenter.

At the age of 25, there is clearly more to come. Moyes has described Bowen as “the future” for West Ham (along with Declan Rice) and a new contract will soon be his, if he wishes to sign it. The England call-up could change the dynamic of those conversations but it would not change Bowen, for whom the hard work does not stop.