Heskey on target for World Cup

By Jonathan Pearce BBC football commentator

While England coach Fabio Capello ponders over which strikers to take to the World Cup finals, one man who should have few concerns about making the trip is Emile Heskey.

Heskey has started only one league game for Villa this season

The Aston Villa forward should not be worried that he hasn't started a Premier League game since the opening day as manager Martin O'Neill has assured the striker he will get his chance.

Fellow front man Gabriel Agbonlahor has been flying for the Midlands club with five goals in his last six games and the system has brought four wins from those games.

O'Neill can't change it at the moment and Heskey will have to be patient but his absence at club level won't worry Capello.

It is true that most of the 71 England players who have made appearances in the last four World Cup finals have enjoyed major roles for their clubs in the build-up season.

Forty-six of them (66%) played in over 30 league games. Only eight (11%) played in under half of their club's league matches and only three (Ashley Cole, Stewart Downing and Michael Owen because of injuries during 2005/6) played in under a third of the club's league matches.

The most successful team, Sir Bobby Robson's 1990 semi-finalists, used 19 men at the finals and 15 of them had played in over 30 league games that season so there has been an argument for taking players who have been in the thick of the action for months.

But Heskey will get enough games for Villa under his belt and Capello will definitely take him because of what he brings to the squad. That doesn't include goals - seven from 57 caps is a miserable return, but he brings the best out of the other strikers alongside him.

Wayne Rooney has scored consistently playing alongside the Villa striker, while Michael Owen enjoyed his most prolific Liverpool spell playing with him, netting 99 goals in four full seasons together.

Heskey will be on that jet to Johannesburg and so will David Beckham.

606: DEBATE At the end of the day I believe we should just trust Fabio to make the right choices. I think he is by far the best manager we have had in an eon and so far has not let us down Mississippiskyblue

Every Premier League manager I speak to about the former captain believes he will be taken because of his role in the dressing room and in the corridors of power. He's not as effective on the pitch as he was but he still has a real aura and is the best purveyor of a set-piece that England possess.

But the real reason England will take him can be seen in this week's announcement that he will be playing a diplomatic role at the World Cup draw in December. As a global icon, he is crucial to the 2018 World Cup bid.

There were a few grumbles after Fifa vice-president Jack Warner criticised the English bid last week for just "plodding along". He was right though. England has the history, the stadia and the infrastructure to hold the World Cup, but we're not selling the bid with enough marketing flair.

South Africa won 2010 by using their stars profitably. Delegates were sat next to Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Potential supporters were invited to the inauguration of President Thabo Mbeki.

England may lack worldwide political heavyweights and use of the Westminster machine may remind certain countries of a painful colonial past, but we do have global powerhouse characters and now is the time to use them.

Our bid has substance and now the organisers must sprinkle it with a little magic. Karren Brady and Paul Elliott are worthy new members of the World Cup bid board but they won't convince the world.

This country is a cauldron for spectacular pageantry and talent. There is a unique historical bond here between the Royal Family, showbusiness and football. That is a selling point so let's show the planet what it would be getting in England by using our big brands.

More support from Buckingham Palace would be a start. Prince William is an ambassador so why not increase his role? He would be a splendid salesman in many countries involved in the voting process.

Beckham is an important figure on and off the pitch for England

David Bowie, former Watford chairman Sir Elton John, Robbie Williams and Take That, Leona Lewis and James Bond actor Daniel Craig are the class of delegates who should be at concerts and functions.

Eddie Izzard is huge in America and Ricky Gervais has won three Golden Globes and two Emmy awards. Why aren't they being used to help sell England?

We have Shakespeare's Stratford, the West End, Pinewood studios, and the Manchester music scene. Anything that can be utilised to convince delegates that England will be a vibrant, progressive country in 2018 should be employed. I know it's shameless but so what?

Fifa will want to know how the World Cup can help further develop a country. In South Africa the changes brought about through football are obvious. Here they are not so and we need to prove that the 2018 finals will leave a legacy in the Fifa name. They love that sort of thing at Blatter HQ .

This is where Danny Jordaan comes in. The chief executive of South Africa 2010 is a hugely experienced football politician. He served as general co-ordinator for the Youth World Cup, the 2001 Confederations Cup and the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea. He was a match commissioner in Germany 2006 and was a member of the organising committee that year.

More importantly, perhaps, he headed South Africa's unsuccessful bid for 2006. He knows why they failed then and he understands what was needed to succeed four years later. He can create a legacy programme here in line with the current Fifa Goal project which benefits third world footballers.

Lord Triesman, Lord Mawhinney, David Gill and Sir David Richards are all highly capable but they need a Fifa colossus on their side. Jordaan will be available for the final few months of canvassing and the FA should sign him up if they possibly can.

Over the weekend players like Heskey will be trying to win a place in the England squad. There's time enough for hopeful individuals to make it into a winning team for a July 2010 Sunday.

But as a nation, time is running out for World Cup 2018.

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