Should Lewis Cook manage to get onto the pitch during England’s upcoming friendlies against the Netherlands or Italy, then his grandfather stands to land a significant windfall.
Trevor Burlingham stuck £500 on Cook winning an England senior cap before his 26th birthday while the midfielder was still beavering away in the Leeds reserve side back in 2014.
He was offered odds of 33/1 by the William Hill shop in Tadcaster, who stand to lose £17,000 should Cook make it off Gareth Southgate’s bench and onto the pitch.
A spokesman for William Hill bookies, Joe Crilly, assessed the lay of the land:
Lewis has obviously already had one call up but didn’t win a cap and it now looks like a case of when, not if his grandfather is repaid for the faith he showed in his grandson
He has been in fine form this season and is well deserving of a call up, so let’s hope he can go one better and bag a cap in the next few days.
Of course, given that Cook is only 21, he still has another five years to garner that magic first cap – but he’s never been closer than he is at this moment.
Cook’s grandfather isn’t the only speculative family member who has won big after betting on their nipper’s international calibre.
Chris Kirkland’s dad won almost £10,000 when his son kept net for England for the first time in 2006, while Harry Wilson’s grandfather scooped £125,000 when the Welsh teenager made his senior international debut in 2013 – after placing the bet when Wilson was just 18 months old.
Now that’s impressive foresight.