JAMES Ward-Prowse hopes England’s Under-17 World Cup winners get the opportunities he has had with Saints.

The midfielder celebrates his 23rd birthday tomorrow but has already made 180 appearances for Saints, including 144 in the Premier League. 

Ward-Prowse, who made his Saints debut when he was still only 16, hopes the England U17 players that overcame a 2-0 deficit to beat Spain 5-2 in Saturday's final, seven of whom are at Chelsea or Manchester City, will get similar opportunities in the top flight.

“We watched the last half hour as we were travelling to Brighton,” said the former England U21 captain, who also played for England at U17, U19 and U20 level. 

“Everyone had an interest in it and to see them win it the way they did was great. It takes courage to come back from 2-0 down.

"So to get five goals - and the quality of the goals - as well … to see them all celebrating you could see how much it meant to them.

“Overall it’s been a great summer for English football with the seniors qualifying for the World Cup and the younger age-group sides doing well.

“These are exciting times for England football fans.

“There’s good competition throughout the age groups.

“Hopefully these players get chances in their respective clubs’ first teams and they can improve the great [England] squad we’ve already got.”

Manchester City’s Phil Foden was rightly lauded after scoring twice in the final before receiving the Golden Ball award for being the player of the tournament.

“He’s obviously done well in the tournament, hopefully he goes back to his club and gets a chance there as well,” added Ward-Prowse, who was still only 17 when he made his Premier League debut at Manchester City five years ago.

He soon provided a reminder of his dead-ball ability after being recalled at Brighton.

Seven minutes into his first Premier League game for more than a month, Ward-Prowse’s free kick hit the post before being headed in by Steven Davis.

“It was nice to contribute towards the first goal, I was just disappointed we couldn’t keep up our early dominance and take all three points,” he added.

“We didn’t quite stay on the front foot, we dropped back after getting the goal.

"But it’s not the worst result and we have a chance to get some momentum against Burnley.”