Hat-trick against Miami FC puts Toney back in Tuchel's World Cup plans after Saudi exile

Ivan Toney has forced his way back into Thomas Tuchel’s World Cup thinking with a hat-trick in England’s closed-doors practice match against Miami FC, capping a remarkable turnaround for a striker who appeared to have played his last game for the national side less than a year ago.

The 30-year-old’s goals came in a training exercise against a second-tier local side that also featured set pieces and a mock penalty shoot-out, and Toney was joined on the scoresheet by training players Rio Ngumoha and Ethan Nwaneri. The nature of the opposition means the result carries limited weight, but the performance was enough to reinforce Toney’s standing in Tuchel’s squad as one of England’s designated finishers and penalty takers.

Tuchel has been open about his belief that winning the World Cup in North America this summer will likely require navigating at least two penalty shoot-outs, and Toney — who scored from the spot during England’s shoot-out at Euro 2024 — fits squarely into that plan.

The road back has been anything but straightforward. Toney was charged by the FA in November 2022 for 232 breaches of betting rules, serving an eight-month ban that ended in January 2024. He recovered sufficiently to earn a place in England’s Euro 2024 squad, where he made a meaningful contribution from the bench — linking effectively with Harry Kane and helping create Jude Bellingham’s last-minute equaliser against Slovakia.

But just as his international career appeared to be back on track, Toney left Brentford for Saudi Pro League side Al Ahli. Tuchel did not visit him once during his time in Saudi Arabia, despite Toney posting 42 goals across all competitions. The move seemed to have ended his England prospects entirely.

It was Tuchel’s assistant Justin Cochrane who persuaded the head coach to take another look. Cochrane’s case, it appears, rested partly on character: Toney can read as detached to those who don’t know him, but those close to the striker describe him as quietly driven and single-minded rather than disengaged.

Kane has since offered a glowing endorsement of his international teammate, and Toney now enters the tournament with the backing of both the coaching staff and the squad’s senior players. His journey from Northampton to Peterborough to Brentford to Riyadh and back into an England World Cup squad is, whatever happens next, one of the more unlikely stories of this cycle.