As Fabio Capello prepares his squad for a money spinning international friendly against Brazil in Doha much of the talk amongst Burnley fans has been about whether Tyrone Mears deserves an England call up. The right back has been in blistering form since the start of the season and with a price tag of around half a million pounds is proving to be one of the steals of the season.

Sadly, there is one major stumbling block standing in the way of the Stockport born lad, he has already played for Jamaica despite not having any links to the country. It now turns out not even lashings of Levi Roots' Reggae Reggae Sauce could make the twenty six year old eligible for their national team.

Mears was called up to the squad as a “favour” to the Reggae Boyz then boss John Barnes and to get some match fitness due to Marseille’s lack of a reserve team. Despite playing well over an hour at the New Den in his debut against Nigeria, a private investigator later found his father his actually from Sierra Leone, making him about as Jamaican as me in a Rasta hat. The moral of the story has to be never do a good turn for John Barnes; I just hope Mears didn’t lend him any money.

But there is hope, as the game was only a friendly the Burnley number fourteen can apply to FIFA to switch his nationality back to English. If the seemingly straightforward application is successful then any fan of the national team should look at “our Ty” as a possible England squad member.

Many reading this may laugh at the suggestion of a Burnley player being involved with the national team; but they should put their snobbery to one side and examine his case carefully.

Firstly, Mears is an outstanding athlete and footballer. His pace, power and ability to get up and down the flanks for the full ninety minutes makes him perfect for the demands of the modern game. Defensively he has performed consistently well, standing up to the wide men of all the teams he has come up against so far this term. While in attack, he is very much in the Glenn Johnson mould and regularly storms forward to great effect. Mears has been involved with many of the goals Burnley have scored this season, not to mention winning two penalties in his last two outings.

With that in mind if England are to play the same way as they have in qualifying, then surely Johnson’s back up should be a player of similar make up. Looking at the other candidates in and around Capello’s squad there is most definitely a lack of both quantity and quality.
Without his first choice Liverpool full back tomorrow, Capello will almost certainly start with Manchester United’s versatile defender Wes Brown, other than that there is only James Milner in the current squad that is able to provide cover in the right back position.

This week Milner’s Villa teammate Luke Young joined Jamie Carragher in retiring from the international setup which has only served to further dilute the talent pool. Other candidates for the position are veteran Gary Neville and youngster Micah Richards who are both struggling with injuries and form respectively. Further back in the pecking order are Tottenham’s Kyle Naughton and City’s Nedum Onohua but they are not yet playing regularly enough in their first teams to warrant a spot.

What Mears has in his favour is Capello’s supposed requirement of regular first team football at what is currently a midtable Premier League Club. Week in week out he is performing at a consistently high standard making him England’s second best right back according to opta stats.

I’m not saying he should be on the plane to South Africa or even a regular in Capello’s squad but in terms of his performances so far this season and the attributes he possess Tyrone Mears most definitely deserves a shot at wearing three lions on his chest.

Like I said earlier there are many who will scoff at this suggestion; but anyone who is currently following the Claret’s will know what I’m talking about. If he’s successful it will have been a long and rocky road to the top for Mears; but now a man who could’ve possibly ended up playing Rugby League for England could be on the verge of fulfilling his dream of achieving the same feat for his country’s football team.