I’m a former England star with eight caps – I’d be worth £100MILLION and have 50 caps if I was playing today
FORMER Premier League star Kevin Phillips reckons he would be worth £100million in today’s market.
The striker played for Sunderland, Southampton, Aston Villa, Birmingham and Crystal Palace in the top-flight.
Phillips’ best years came in the North East with the Black Cats, winning the Premier League Golden Boot and European Golden Shoe in 1999/00 after scoring 30 goals.
The striker was subsequently called up the England squad, playing eight times over a three year spell.
But Phillips believes he would have earned more caps if was competing for the No9 shirt in a different era.
He told the No Tippy Tappy Football podcast: “The way I look at it, I’m privileged to have eight caps for England.
“I was in every squad for two years and I went to Euro 2000.
“If I was playing now I might be worth whatever, £100m.
“But when I was scoring those goals I was competing with probably seven or eight top class strikers – Alan Shearer, Michael Owen, Robbie Fowler, Andy Cole, Teddy Sheringham.
“Playing for Sunderland remember, and that’s no disrespect to Sunderland, but if I was doing that now I’d probably get 30, 40, 50 caps for England.
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“My only grievances or slight bitterness is I didn’t get any minutes on the pitch at Euro 2000.
“We got knocked out in the group stages and I remember one game where I’m standing looking at Kevin Keegan stretching in front of him to say ‘get me on the pitch’.
“I’d just come off the back of 30 league goals. I’d have loved to have some time on the pitch in a major competition.”
Phillips hung up his boots in 2014 after a spell at Leicester.
He has since gone into management, working as an assistant at the Foxes, Derby and Stoke.
And he was most recently a manager of Hartlepool in the National League.