From Times Square to England squad: Trevoh Chalobah realises World Cup dream

Trevoh Chalobah has always thought he would be part of an England World Cup squad. In July 2018, the Chelsea centre‑half even put it on the record. “One day … believe,” he posted on social media, alongside a picture of the World Cup trophy. He was 19 and had just joined Ipswich in the Championship on a season loan. The message has aged exceptionally well.

Despite his faith, Chalobah did not think it would be this summer. The chance had surely gone when Thomas Tuchel did not name him in his squad for the tournament in North America. He was close after a fine season at Chelsea, when he made a career-high 47 club appearances, but not close enough.

Everything changed last Monday, and if there is an arresting quality to the story it is because it takes in so much emotion while also offering a peek into the glamorous lifestyle of a footballer. The heartbreak belonged to Tino Livramento, who was forced to withdraw from Tuchel’s squad after sustaining a calf injury in training last Sunday.

Chalobah was on holiday with a friend in New York. He had been in Monaco the previous weekend for the Formula One Grand Prix before popping along the Côte d’Azur to Cannes, then heading to the Big Apple on the Saturday. The plan after that was to go to Los Angeles.

The funny thing was Chalobah did not see the message from Tuchel straight away. “I was in Times Square,” he says. “I’d gone to the shops. It was when I got back to my hotel I saw Thomas had texted but it was two hours before. I didn’t see the message for two hours. I wasn’t on my phone. I was just walking around.”

Call me – and fairly urgently – was the gist of the England manager’s words. “My heart just dropped,” Chalobah says. As in, it performed a flip. Because he knew. Tuchel was not reaching out for an idle chat. “I knew straight away,” the defender says. And so, shortly after, there was Tuchel on a video chat. “He was smiling and he said: ‘I have got some good news for you.’ I was just over the moon.”

His World Cup dream was realised and he could not help but repost his old tweet. “It has always been a dream and that day I decided to tweet it,” he says of the 2018 message. “I believed that one day, hopefully I’d make it. This is the No 1 moment of my career, especially because I didn’t expect it [now]. That is the beautiful thing. To get a call like that shows that when you think all is lost or it’s not going to happen … that tweet came true.”

Tuchel did tell Chalobah to “stay ready” when he named his squad and the defender tried to keep himself ticking over. Replacements for injured outfield players are permitted up to 24 hours before a team’s opening match; England kicked off last Wednesday in Dallas with the 4-2 win against Croatia.

Chalobah flew from New York to Kansas City, where England are based, and was there by the time the squad returned after the Croatia game. It has been a whirlwind – down to a detail about his boots. “I gave them away at the end of the season,” he says. “My sponsors were going to send me boots out [to the US] for me to do my own thing with a personal trainer. I was waiting for that to happen when I got to Los Angeles. I had to speed up the process when I got called up.”

Chalobah is fighting to acclimatise after missing England’s hot-weather preparation camp in Florida. He worked individually at first before taking part in his first full training session with the squad on Saturday. As Tuchel has said many times, adaptation is the name of the game.

“As athletes you always have to be mentally ready,” Chalobah says. “I was in a position where I was switching off and recovering and enjoying my holidays but I’ve been used to this last-minute stuff throughout my career so I was able to adapt.”

Chalobah has had to deal with upheaval. After Ipswich, he had further loans at Huddersfield in the Championship and Lorient in Ligue 1 and there has been uncertainty in more than one pre‑season about his future at Chelsea. It was most acute in 2024, when the club stripped him of his shirt number and consigned him to the so-called bomb squad of players they wanted to sell. They eventually loaned him to Crystal Palace. And yet they recalled him in January 2025 to answer an injury crisis. He is not a player willing to accept that a door is closed. He will always kick it back open.

“I know the player I am. I know how far I’ve come. I know what I’ve been through. So I can’t allow those moments to define who I am or have that disbelief. I have faith. In my career, I’ve always been coming in – maybe not seen as playing – but then I’m always managing to play. It starts in training. Just give my all, make sure I’m ready when called upon. I believe I can play a big part at this World Cup.”

Chalobah’s Christian faith is central to everything. “That’s what I build on,” he says. “No matter what happens, I know I have a foundation that I can lean on. Because of my faith, I know that those moments won’t define me. I just use them as fuel to always prove people wrong and I love it.”

Tuchel’s decision to give the call to Chalobah has been questioned. Why replace a full-back in Livramento with a central defender? Would Myles Lewis-Skelly or Lewis Hall not have been better? Then again, they are left-backs; Tuchel considered Livramento primarily as a right-back. What about Trent Alexander-Arnold? Or – if a centre‑half was needed – what about Harry Maguire?

Tuchel had reservations about Maguire’s ability to be an unselfish support player, which have not been dispelled by the Manchester United man’s vociferous reaction to his omission. The manager also said in March that he considered Chalobah to be ahead of Maguire “on the level of mobility”. Tuchel’s idea is that Jarell Quansah will provide cover at right-back, even left-back as well, while Chalobah will compete at right centre-half.

Tuchel believes in Chalobah. He gave him his Chelsea debut in August 2021 in the European Super Cup against Villarreal, which ushered in his breakthrough season at the club. He tried to sign him from Chelsea in the summer of 2023 when he was at Bayern Munich. “Yeah, he tried to bring me to Bayern,” Chalobah says. And the manager gave him his England debut against Senegal last June. It remains his only cap.

There was a moment as Chalobah reflected on the past week or so when he was asked whether his hotel in Los Angeles was refundable. “Yeah,” he said, with a smile. “I’m still trying to get my money back.” Another England appearance would be priceless.