{"id":17144,"date":"2026-07-14T06:39:02","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T06:39:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=17144"},"modified":"2026-07-14T06:39:02","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T06:39:02","slug":"reece-james-delivers-emotional-message-before-enzo-reunion-read-chelsea-f-c","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=17144","title":{"rendered":"Reece James delivers emotional message before Enzo reunion &#8211; Read Chelsea F.C."},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Reece James has described England\u2019s World Cup semi-final against Argentina as \u201cwhat dreams are made of\u201d after completing his return from injury.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Chelsea captain played 49 minutes during England\u2019s 2-1 extra-time victory over Norway on Saturday. He initially operated in central midfield before moving to right-back as Thomas Tuchel\u2019s side protected their lead.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">England will now face reigning champions Argentina in Atlanta on Wednesday, with James set to come up against Chelsea team-mate Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-x wp-block-embed-x\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Reece James vs Norway (49 minutes) : <\/p>\n<p>\u2013 27\/30 passes <br \/>\u2013 3 clearances <br \/>\u2013 3\/5 duels won <br \/>\u2013 2 tackles <br \/>\u2013 1 block <br \/>\u2013 0 times dribbled past <\/p>\n<p>World Cup Semi Finalist \ud83e\udd81 \ud83c\udff4\udb40\udc67\udb40\udc62\udb40\udc65\udb40\udc6e\udb40\udc67\udb40\udc7f <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/fDDyOFIbc4\">pic.twitter.com\/fDDyOFIbc4<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Pys (@CFCPys) July 11, 2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">James ready for biggest stage after injury return<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Speaking on England\u2019s Lions\u2019 Den programme, James said he had dreamed about playing in and winning a World Cup since childhood.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThis is what dreams are made of,\u201d James said. \u201cEveryone from being a little boy dreamt of playing in a World Cup and winning the World Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The 26-year-old missed the 2022 tournament in Qatar through injury and later sat out three matches at this summer\u2019s competition after suffering another setback. However, he worked with England\u2019s medical staff to recover in time for the quarter-final.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">England\u2019s official interview highlighted James\u2019 determination to stay calm despite the size of Wednesday\u2019s occasion. He believes experience has taught him to focus on the fundamentals rather than the prize at stake.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Chelsea supporters have already seen James handle major finals. He captained the Blues to Club World Cup and Conference League success during the 2024\/25 season and also featured in the club\u2019s 2021 Champions League triumph.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">ReadChelsea recently covered how James impressed Tuchel during his comeback against Norway. The England manager described his display as excellent after using him in two positions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">James now has another chance to show his quality on the biggest stage. A place in the World Cup final stands between the Chelsea captain and Fern\u00e1ndez, creating a compelling Stamford Bridge subplot.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reece James has described England\u2019s World Cup semi-final against Argentina as \u201cwhat dreams are made&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17145,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}