Win Euro 2008 for England!

Earning our place

Gaining the captaincy allows you to fiddle wholesale with the manager's tactics - here we've organised a far more exciting, attacking line-up, with us in our favoured Right Wing position.

McClaren doesn't seem impressed with our tactical meddlery.

Keep pushing on and scoring high ratings in each match to keep the manager's attention and make the full squad for competitive games.

Big-time friendly games are perfect showcases for your talent.

Our Wembley debut, and we bag a scintillating hat-trick. Don't get too attached to that armband, Terry.

Unless you impress, you'll quickly find yourself relegated to the long list of England has-beens.

Will he pick us? Does he even like us? McClaren looks on, disappointed as always. Miserable sod.

Scoring four goals in our first full competitive start can't do much harm to our England career, though. Cut-scenes like this show just how accepted we've become by the senior squad.

Ben Richardson is a former Staff Writer for Official PlayStation 2 magazine and a former Content Editor of GamesRadar+. In the years since Ben left GR, he has worked as a columnist, communications officer, charity coach, and podcast host – but we still look back to his news stories from time to time, they are a window into a different era of video games. 

Latest in Sports
WWE 2K25 MyFaction
WWE 2K25 MyFaction tips for unlocking Oddities, Persona cards and MFP
FC 25
FC 25 Dreamchasers tracker and full UEFA promo guide
FC 25
FC 25 Season 6 Ladder Players list and how to unlock them all
WWE 2K25
WWE 2K25 locker codes guide to free MyFaction cards
Skate 4
The Skate reboot isn't even out yet, but it already has an EA specialty: microtransactions
Umaga is a key player in The Bloodline Showcase
How to unlock all wrestlers in WWE 2K25
Latest in Features
Naoe kills a target with a black and white filter over the camera highlighting the red of blood spray in Assassin's Creed Shadows, with an On The Radar orange frame
Assassin's Creed Shadows "has a little bit of Tarantino flavor", but its real secret ingredient is intrigue: "It's almost like you're watching an episode of Shogun"
Helldivers 2 Borderline Justice Warbond helldiver using hoverpack to shoot down with hunting rifle
Talking points from the Game Developers Conference 2025 and how they could impact the future of gaming
Flexispot E7 Plus with plant, monitor, soundbar, and controller on top next to white wall lighting.
Gaming desks vs regular desks: which surface should you buy?
Google Pixel 9a smartphones on a beige background
One Google Pixel 9a feature could make it a better gaming phone than most budget mainstream models
Yasuke and Naoe ready to fight on the Assassin's Creed Shadows On The Radar thumbnail
On The Radar: Assassin's Creed Shadows coverage hub
Captain Planet #1
Captain Planet is back after 33 years with a "sexy" makeover and a message that's as important as ever: "Reality has gotten a lot less subtle"