West Ham United captain Jarrod Bowen appears to have a seat on the plane for the 2026 World Cup booked already. The same cannot be said, though, for Al-Hilal’s former Brentford talisman Ivan Toney.
A source told Hammers News in late-2025 that Toney was in no rush to leave Saudi Arabia despite cautious interest from a number of Premier League clubs.
West Ham United were among those most heavily linked at the time.
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Clearly, Ivan Toney did not feel that bidding farewell to the Middle East – plus a reported £600,000 weekly wage – was a sacrifice necessary to keep his World Cup ambitions alive.
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In fact, when speaking to talkSPORT as recently as February, the former Newcastle, Northampton and Peterborough man confidently claimed that finding the net regularly in Saudi Arabia would ‘get me recognised and help me push close to being in the frame’.
Toney was conspicuous by his absence, though, as Thomas Tuchel named his England roster to face Uruguay and Japan in this month’s double header.
Jarrod Bowen appears World Cup-bound. But Toney, despite scoring 34 goals in 38 games for Al-Hilal this season, is not so much ‘in the frame’ as out of sight and out of mind on the fringes.
Shortly after missing out on the 2022 World Cup squad, Toney told the Kick Game YouTube channel that representing his country in a major tournament was a ‘dream’.
An ambition which now appears likely to go unfulfilled.
Among those sitting between he and Harry Kane in Tuchel’s pecking order are Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Dominic Solanke. Plus, Ollie Watkins – omitted this time but surely the next in line – and probably also Anthony Gordon; a revelation in the number nine role during Newcastle’s Champions League campaign.
So by closing the door on a January return to English football, a now-30-year-old Toney may have torched his final chance of representing the Three Lions again.
It is almost certain that Toney, who has only featured once in the post-Gareth Southgate era, will never step onto the World Cup stage.
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In that very same talkSPORT interview, Toney left the door ajar to a Premier League return later down the line. Should one come about, it will be too little too late as far as his World Cup ‘dream’ is concerned.
“I’m settled at the moment [in Saudi Arabia],” Toney said. “With me, I can change my mind very quick, so I take it one step at a time.
“Who knows what could happen. I would be open to [a Premier League return in the future].”
Had Toney looked to force through a move even to a relegation-battling West Ham side, had he scored the goals to keep Nuno Espirito Santo and co in the top-flight, one suspects that a seat on the Three Lions plane would have been his to lose.
Instead, he finds himself stuck behind an injury-hit Solanke [seven starts all season], and a Leeds frontman who has missed as many penalties as he’s scored goals in his last nine games.
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