England new boy Dan Burn has insisted he is not joining up with Thomas Tuchel's squad just to make up the numbers and has the “ultimate aim” of playing in the 2026 World Cup.
Defender Burn has enjoyed an unforgettable few days that has seen him called up by England for the first time before going on to help hometown club Newcastle end a 70-year wait to win a domestic trophy.
On Friday, the 32-year-old was one of the surprise names in Tuchel's first squad ahead of the upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Albania and Latvia at Wembley Stadium.
Just two days later, it was Burn's towering header that put Newcastle in front on the way to a 2-1 League Cup final victory over Liverpool, in which the 2.01 metre-tall centre-half's performance earned him the man-of-the-match award.
While Tyneside went into party mode after securing their first domestic trophy since the FA Cup in 1955, Burn had to shift focus to England ahead of joining up with the squad on Monday morning.
And the player released by Newcastle's academy as a teenager but rejoined in 2022 had made it clear that he has big ambitions now that he has finally made the national team squad.
“I've waited a long time for this opportunity and I didn't want to spoil it,” said Burn in Monday's press conference
“He [Tuchel] said I've been playing well for a long time. I'm not just coming in to be a cheerleader – I want to play.
“You need to be given those opportunities. Now I want to make the most of it and get on the pitch as much as possible.
“I'm trying to take it camp by camp and make a big impression as I can and try make the next camp. Every little kid's dream is to play in a World Cup.”
It has been a fairy-tale story for Burn who played non-league football with Blyth Spartans and Darlington before working his way back up the football pyramid and joining top-flight Brighton in 2018.
A dream move back to Newcastle materialised in January 2021 when Eddie Howe made him one of his first signings having taken over as manager two months earlier, as the club's new Saudi Arabian-led consortium invested heavily to stave off the threat of relegation.
Since then, Burn has been an integral part of Howe's side that has played Uefa Champions League football for the first time in two decades and now earned its place in club folklore following Sunday's triumph.
But it is those days playing in the lower leagues that helped mould Burn into the player and person he is now. “It made me resilient,” he said.
“I have not had a straight-line trajectory in my career. It has been up and down from making my Premier League debut at 21 – three years later I was released by Fulham.
“I don't care about people's opinions – I know what I'm good at.
“I feel like I have been doubted a lot over my career. Not many people at Darlington would have said I'd be sitting here doing a press conference for England, but as I said it has made me more resilient. I feel I deserve to be here.”
Burn has been a reliable performer for Newcastle both at left-back and centre-half, helping the Magpies finish fourth and then seventh in the Premier League.
They are currently sixth in the table and very much in the running for a return to Champions League football next season.
Despite his consistency at the back – he has been pretty much an ever-present for Newcastle, making 139 appearances since joining – an England call-up never materialised under previous manager Gareth Southgate.
“I think I have been overlooked, but I understood it – what Gareth did to bring England where it was to where it is now,” Burn said.
“In my opinion, he treated it more like a club, which worked well for them. It wasn't like it was back in the day.
“It was about the togetherness, but that worked against me a little bit. So, when the new manager came in, it was kind of a new slate.
“Luckily, the new manager has taken a chance on me and I want to grasp the opportunity.”
When asked whether he thought his England chance had gone, Burn added: “I think so. There was a little bit of chat around the World Cup 2022 when I was playing left-back. I had never played any international football, which worked against me.
“I did think it had passed me by at 32. When the new manager came in it was that feeling of 'you never know'.”
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – FINAL RECKONING
Director: Christopher McQuarrie
Starring: Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Simon Pegg
Rating: 4/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Nepotism is the name of the game
Salman Khan’s father, Salim Khan, is one of Bollywood’s most legendary screenwriters. Through his partnership with co-writer Javed Akhtar, Salim is credited with having paved the path for the Indian film industry’s blockbuster format in the 1970s. Something his son now rules the roost of. More importantly, the Salim-Javed duo also created the persona of the “angry young man” for Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan in the 1970s, reflecting the angst of the average Indian. In choosing to be the ordinary man’s “hero” as opposed to a thespian in new Bollywood, Salman Khan remains tightly linked to his father’s oeuvre. Thanks dad.
A Cat, A Man, and Two Women
Junichiro Tamizaki
Translated by Paul McCarthy
Daunt Books
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Sheikh Zayed's poem
When it is unveiled at Abu Dhabi Art, the Standing Tall exhibition will appear as an interplay of poetry and art. The 100 scarves are 100 fragments surrounding five, figurative, female sculptures, and both sculptures and scarves are hand-embroidered by a group of refugee women artisans, who used the Palestinian cross-stitch embroidery art of tatreez. Fragments of Sheikh Zayed’s poem Your Love is Ruling My Heart, written in Arabic as a love poem to his nation, are embroidered onto both the sculptures and the scarves. Here is the English translation.
Your love is ruling over my heart
Your love is ruling over my heart, even a mountain can’t bear all of it
Woe for my heart of such a love, if it befell it and made it its home
You came on me like a gleaming sun, you are the cure for my soul of its sickness
Be lenient on me, oh tender one, and have mercy on who because of you is in ruins
You are like the Ajeed Al-reem [leader of the gazelle herd] for my country, the source of all of its knowledge
You waddle even when you stand still, with feet white like the blooming of the dates of the palm
Oh, who wishes to deprive me of sleep, the night has ended and I still have not seen you
You are the cure for my sickness and my support, you dried my throat up let me go and damp it
Help me, oh children of mine, for in his love my life will pass me by.
Sholto Byrnes on Myanmar politics
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Lamsa
Founder: Badr Ward
Launched: 2014
Employees: 60
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: EdTech
Funding to date: $15 million
Analysis
Maros Sefcovic is juggling multiple international trade agreement files, but his message was clear when he spoke to The National on Wednesday.
The EU-UAE bilateral trade deal will be finalised soon, he said. It is in everyone’s interests to do so. Both sides want to move quickly and are in alignment. He said the UAE is a very important partner for the EU. It’s full speed ahead - and with some lofty ambitions - on the road to a free trade agreement.
We also talked about US-EU tariffs. He answered that both sides need to talk more and more often, but he is prepared to defend Europe's position and said diplomacy should be a guiding principle through the current moment.
Greatest of All Time
Starring: Vijay, Sneha, Prashanth, Prabhu Deva, Mohan
ICC men's cricketer of the year
2004 - Rahul Dravid (IND) ; 2005 - Jacques Kallis (SA) and Andrew Flintoff (ENG); 2006 - Ricky Ponting (AUS); 2007 - Ricky Ponting; 2008 - Shivnarine Chanderpaul (WI); 2009 - Mitchell Johnson (AUS); 2010 - Sachin Tendulkar (IND); 2011 - Jonathan Trott (ENG); 2012 - Kumar Sangakkara (SL); 2013 - Michael Clarke (AUS); 2014 - Mitchell Johnson; 2015 - Steve Smith (AUS); 2016 - Ravichandran Ashwin (IND); 2017 - Virat Kohli (IND); 2018 - Virat Kohli; 2019 - Ben Stokes (ENG); 2021 - Shaheen Afridi
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MOUNTAINHEAD REVIEW
Starring: Ramy Youssef, Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman
Director: Jesse Armstrong
Rating: 3.5/5
Match info
Manchester United 1
Fred (18')
Wolves 1
Moutinho (53')
Zayed Sustainability Prize
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UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FIXTURES
All kick-off times 10.45pm UAE ( 4 GMT) unless stated
Tuesday
Sevilla v Maribor
Spartak Moscow v Liverpool
Manchester City v Shakhtar Donetsk
Napoli v Feyenoord
Besiktas v RB Leipzig
Monaco v Porto
Apoel Nicosia v Tottenham Hotspur
Borussia Dortmund v Real Madrid
Wednesday
Basel v Benfica
CSKA Moscow Manchester United
Paris Saint-Germain v Bayern Munich
Anderlecht v Celtic
Qarabag v Roma (8pm)
Atletico Madrid v Chelsea
Juventus v Olympiakos
Sporting Lisbon v Barcelona
Company Profile
Name: Thndr
Started: 2019
Co-founders: Ahmad Hammouda and Seif Amr
Sector: FinTech
Headquarters: Egypt
UAE base: Hub71, Abu Dhabi
Current number of staff: More than 150
Funds raised: $22 million
Company profile
Name: One Good Thing
Founders: Bridgett Lau and Micheal Cooke
Based in: Dubai
Sector: e-commerce
Size: 5 employees
Stage: Looking for seed funding
Investors: Self-funded and seeking external investors
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The Kingfisher Secret
Anonymous, Penguin Books
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Power: 727hp
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Transmission: 8-speed auto
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