Kobbie Mainoo: The Next Unexpected Hero for England?
Sixty years on, the story still sets the standard for English football fairy tales.
On a July afternoon at Wembley, England claimed the only global crown in their history. Geoff Hurst, who had begun the tournament as a back-up, walked off the turf with a hat-trick, a World Cup winner’s medal and a place in folklore. West Germany were beaten, the nation erupted, and a West Ham striker who was never meant to start became the face of immortality.
Hurst had opened the competition behind Jimmy Greaves in Sir Alf Ramsey’s pecking order. Greaves was the star, the man everyone assumed would lead England to glory. Injury changed everything. One misfortune, one door opened. Hurst stepped through it and never looked back.
His goals, his extra-time thunderbolt, even the chaotic scenes of supporters spilling onto the pitch before the final whistle – all of it fed into a myth that still shapes how England view tournaments and unlikely heroes. No England side has matched that achievement since. Hurst remains a reference point, a reminder that tournaments often belong to the man nobody saw coming.
That is the context framing the latest conversation around Kobbie Mainoo.
As England search for control in midfield and debate swirls over balance, tempo and imagination, former Three Lions forward Michael Owen sees echoes of that old story. Speaking to GOAL in his role as UK ambassador for Casino.org, Owen admitted he does feel a twinge of sympathy for the young midfielder, who has been fighting for minutes while the country clamours for more authority in the middle of the park.
“I do a little bit, because I think he's definitely got the ability to play a role in the World Cup. And who knows? Things change, you get unlikely heroes,” Owen said, leaning straight into the Hurst parallel.
He went back to 1966 to make his point. England’s “greatest moment ever”, as he called it, was built on a twist few anticipated. Hurst was never supposed to be the main act. That was Greaves.
“Who would have thought Geoff Hurst would have been playing?” Owen said. “Jimmy Greaves was the best thing since sliced bread. My dad just raves about Jimmy Greaves. When anyone's talking about the best England XI and things like that, my dad's like, ‘Jimmy Greaves’ straight away. He was insanely good. Now, things happen, and all of a sudden, Geoff Hurst plays, and look what happens.”
The message is clear. Stay ready. Because tournaments have a habit of ignoring the script.
“There will be, or there could be, a surprise. And it could be Mainoo, you can't switch off,” Owen insisted.
His wider view of England’s campaign is blunt. The early rounds, in his eyes, have not pitted Gareth Southgate’s side against anything they should fear. If England had slipped, he believes the backlash would have been ferocious.
“Really, what we've done so far, if we had been knocked out, there would have been a huge inquest. I mean, nobody should be really in our league,” he said.
Owen bristled at the way some fixtures have been framed as epic hurdles.
“We've built it up as if Mexico was the hardest game of all time, but come on. Norway, if we played Norway at a neutral ground, let's say we play Norway in Spain tomorrow, people would expect us to beat them two or 3-0. So when you look back, we should be beating every single team.”
Then comes the shift. The warm-up act is over. Now, he says, England step into something different.
“This [Argentina] is now the first game, this is a proper game, this is one that is a toss of a coin, this is one that's going to challenge us. But everything so far has been what you would expect from England, surely.”
This is where the Hurst template really bites. Knockout football, heavyweight opposition, thin margins. One moment can flip a tournament, one player can redefine his career.
“We will see, but if we're going to win it, there are going to be so many twists and turns and so many heroes that we won't even be thinking at the moment. And Mainoo could be one of them.”
Sixty years ago, England found their unexpected hero in a striker waiting in the wings. The stage now belongs to a new generation. The question is simple: when the chaos comes and a nation holds its breath, will Kobbie Mainoo be the one stepping out of the shadows?
