On the eve of the Euro 2020 final, with Kalvin Phillips about to play by far the most important match of his career, a raft of good luck messages were pinging into his phone.
One video message stood out, however. It was from Andrea Pirlo, the Italian playmaking midfielder, nemesis of England in 2012 and the player after whom Leeds fans nicknamed Phillips, The Yorkshire Pirlo.
For a man who hadn’t played at any level for England prior to September 2020, the ensuing 10 months had been a pretty remarkable rise anyway.