Kalvin Phillips England’s most popular player at Euro 2020

Leeds midfielder has made a big impact on fans during tournament
Phillips has been most popular England player during Euro 2020, after ranking 21st beforehand
Phil Foden’s popularity drops, Harry Maguire’s rises and Jack Grealish remains a big hit
Player Approval Rankings rates the top squads at Euro 2020 by online popularity based on tweets sent since the start of the tournament

Kalvin Phillips has been revealed as the most popular player among England fans during Euro 2020, a new study has revealed.

The Leeds midfielder, named man of the match during the opening win over Croatia, has been a big hit online during the tournament with his popularity soaring as a result of his fine performances.

A new study by sports data specialists Sportmonks has analysed tweets sent about every member of the England squad since the beginning of Euro 2020, providing a popularity ranking based on negative/positive sentiment. By comparing this to data captured before the tournament commenced, Player Approval Ratings is able to identify which players have benefited/suffered the most as a result of their form.

Every tweet posted about each player selected for the England, Spain, Germany, France, Italy, Belgium and Netherlands squads since the beginning of qualification in 2019 has been analysed, with each scored on it’s positive and negative sentiment, before being ranked and compared to others to give an accurate ranking of each squad based on popularity.

Phillips was a fringe member of the squad going into the tournament but his all-action style in the centre of midfield has been a big hit with the fans and his assist for Raheem Sterling’s opener in the first game has seen him cement his position in Gareth Southgate’s plans and the hearts of the England fans.

England squad popularity rankings (25/6/21)

Kalvin Phillips
Harry Maguire
Phil Foden
Jack Grealish
Mason Mount
Jordan Pickford
Jude Bellingham
Raheem Sterling
Bakary Saka
Tyrone Mings
Declan Rice
Conor Coady
Reece James
Luke Shaw
Marcus Rashford
Harry Kane
Jadon Sancho
John Stones
Dominic Calvert-Lewin
Kieran Trippier
Sam Johnstone
Ben White
Jordan Henderson
Kyle Walker
Ben Chilwell
Aaron Ramsdale

From being ranked as the 21st most popular player prior to the tournament, he is now England’s most popular player as a result of the Twitter analytics studied.

Harry Maguire has seen his importance increase in his absence before finally returning against Czech Republic, and as a result he is now the second most popular player in the squad due to the interest surrounding his return from injury.

The clamour for Jack Grealish’s selection paid off with his first tournament start and he is another big winner in the Sportmonks Approval Rankings in fourth place, while Phil Foden – who was the pre-tournament leader – has dropped down to third place.

Aaron Ramsdale is unsurprisingly bottom of the list owing to his position as third goalkeeper, while it has been a miserable few weeks for Ben Chilwell having missed out on selection, being forced to self-isolate and now ranking in 25th position behind only Ramsdale.

Senior players Kyle Walker and Jordan Henderson are also proving unpopular with the England fans.

Southgate himself could see his position come under scrutiny if England don’t deliver on the promise of their squad, but he still retains popularity among fans following the success at the 2018 World Cup.

He is the third most popular manager of the top seven nations, with Didier Deschamps and Roberto Mancini the only coaches ahead of him following recent successes and runs of form.

Player Approval Rankings will continue to monitor the number of tweets and sentiment of tweets throughout the European Championships to look at how the popularity of each player/manager fluctuates during the tournament.