James Tarkowski on his rise from League One to England international

Liam Williams Updated: 06 May 25 09:32

Between 2014 and 2018, James Tarkowski experienced one of the greatest rises in English football in recent years, making the leap from League One football to earning his first Three Lions cap.

Breaking through at Oldham, Tarkowski earned a move to promotion-chasing Brentford who have more recently forged a reputation as one of the Premier League’s best-run clubs, and even in 2014, Tarkowski said it was clear to see they were on the up.

“As soon as I signed there I could just tell it was being run differently,” said Tarkowski on Monday Night Football. “Oldham and Brentford were in the same league at the same time but they were worlds apart in what they were doing.”

While Tarkowski enjoyed promotion in his first season, then reaching the play-offs in his second season, his stay down south was short lived, returning up north for family reasons after two-and-a-half years to join Sean Dyche’s Burnley.

Tarkowski was unable to break up the formidable defensive partnership of Ben Mee and Michael Keane, making just six league starts in his first 18 months at the club, but when Keane left for Everton, Tarkowski was handed an opportunity by Dyche to prove his worth.

Asked if he was questioning whether his long-term future was at Burnley having spent so long on the sidelines, Tarkowski added: “Probably towards the end of the 18 months. It got to the stage where I was thinking ‘if I don’t start playing now, I’m going to have to go.’

“I was lucky that Keano was getting to the stage where he needed to make the next step and the manager put belief and trust in me and we had a great season that year.”

Burnley went on to finish seventh in the Premier League in Tarkowski’s first season as a starter at Turf Moor, earning a first England call-up against Italy on 27th March 2018 ahead of that summer’s World Cup.

Asked to describe the feeling of winning a first Three Lions cap, Tarkowski said: “Dream come true. It was an amazing evening, I got to play at Wembley against Italy in front of a packed house.

“I felt very fortunate to even be part of the squad in the first place and then to get the opportunity to play was amazing.”