Kobbie Mainoo: England's Next Unlikely Hero?

Sixty years on from Geoff Hurst’s hat-trick echoing around Wembley, England are once again searching for their unlikely hero.

Back in 1966, Hurst was not the headline act. He was the understudy. Jimmy Greaves, the great goalscorer of his generation, began that World Cup as England’s first-choice striker, the man expected to fire Sir Alf Ramsey’s side to glory on home soil. Injury changed everything. Greaves was sidelined, Hurst stepped in, and history did the rest.

A hat-trick in the final against West Germany. A global title secured under the Twin Towers. Supporters spilling onto the pitch before it was, as the commentary etched into folklore, “all over”. Hurst walked off a legend, and no England team has managed to match that achievement since.

That story still matters, because it shapes how former players view the current generation. It colours how they talk about the next man in line, the player waiting for a break that might never come – or might change his life.

For ex-England forward Michael Owen, Kobbie Mainoo sits firmly in that space.

Owen, speaking to GOAL in his role as UK ambassador for Casino.org, believes the young midfielder has the tools to make a serious impact on the biggest stage if the door opens even a fraction.

“I do a little bit,” Owen said when asked if he feels for Mainoo, given England’s periodic struggle to control games in midfield. “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.”

At that point, his mind went straight back to 1966.

“Our greatest moment ever in this country, winning the World Cup, who would have thought Geoff Hurst would have been playing?” he 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.”

That is the blueprint. A squad player becomes a central figure because football, especially tournament football, rarely follows the script.

“There will be, or there could be, a surprise,” Owen continued. “And it could be Mainoo, you can't switch off.”

His wider point is blunt: England, in his eyes, should not have been flirting with jeopardy in earlier matches. The talent gap, he argues, is too big.

“Really, what we've done so far, if we had been knocked out, there would have been a huge inquest,” he said. “I mean, nobody should be really in our league.”

Owen bristles at how some opponents have been framed.

“We've built it up as if Mexico was the hardest game of all time, but come on,” he said. “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.”

Now, though, the tone changes. The warm-up acts are over. Argentina loom.

“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,” Owen said. “But everything so far has been what you would expect from England, surely.”

This is the point in a tournament when reputations are made and careers can pivot. The margins shrink, the pressure grows, and managers look deeper into their squads, searching for a different rhythm, a new solution.

“We will see,” Owen said. “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.”

Hurst once emerged from the shadows and changed English football history in a single month. The question now is whether a young midfielder, watching and waiting, might be handed his own moment to step out of the queue and into the spotlight.