Lewis Hall has spent the last five days proving what everyone at Newcastle United already knew - that he is the best left-back in English football.
In the three years that have passed since his move from Chelsea, Newcastle have moulded Hall into one of the Premier League's best left-backs and that all led to his coming of age moment in the Champions League last term.
Champions League standout and World Cup snub
When Barcelona came to St James' Park in the Champions League knockout stages, all of the pre-match talk was about how the Magpies would handle their superstar on the right-wing Lamine Yamal. But Hall kept him quiet and put in one of the best individual performances of any Newcastle player in recent memory.
To most people it felt as if that made him a shoo-in for Thomas Tuchel's World Cup squad. But Hall missed out on a place on the plane to the United States and instead was back in pre-season at the start of July looking to bounce back with Newcastle.
Bounce-back season and England recall
And bounce back he has, making a rip-roaring start to the season under Matthias Jaissle and signing a new contract on Tyneside that put an end to talk of transfer interest from Manchester United.
That led to a recall to the England squad and after sitting out England's 3-2 defeat to Spain, he has started both of the wins over Czechia and Croatia and rekindled his partnership with Anthony Gordon, who left Newcastle to join Barcelona over the summer, down their left-hand side.
Boyhood Newcastle fan's pride
Such has been Hall's impressive performances it feels like his position to lose and the 22-year-old is finally getting the flowers on a national level Newcastle fans have always felt he deserved. And the love he feels from the Toon Army is reciprocated from Hall's end, who grew up as a boyhood Newcastle fan himself, reminiscing on that transition in a recent conversation with reporters in the mixed zone after Newcastle's win over Hull.
"First things first, when I was younger, I had a stadium tour around here," Hall revealed. "I can't remember how old I was, but obviously when I was in the academy at Chelsea, whenever we finished the games, I used to look at the results of the Newcastle team or sometimes just the line-ups, because we played a little bit earlier."
"I always used to watch the games on the televised and genuinely, I always thought one day that I would play here. I always thought how good it would be to play here. I didn't necessarily think it would be so soon in my career, but I'm here now and I'm buzzing."
When asked if it naturally means more to him when Newcastle win or lose, Hall replied: "I think so. I'm always proud of every game that I play. I never take it for granted. Yeah, I'm really proud to represent this team and this city."
"It's nice to see when you win the game the atmosphere around the city is obviously so good. Yeah, it's really good and I'm really happy."
Next fixtures
Hall will be in line to make a third successive start for the Three Lions when they take on Czechia at Wembley on Tuesday before he will return to Newcastle ahead of next Monday's trip to face Coventry City in the Premier League.
