Brennan Johnson will win his 50th Wales cap in Oslo on Saturday, and when he does he will become the third-youngest Welshman to get there, behind Ethan Ampadu and Chris Gunter. He is 25. He made his debut at 19. The milestone, by his own account, arrived without him noticing much.
Nottingham-born, Wales by choice
Johnson played age-grade football for England before switching allegiances in 2018, and he has never second-guessed it. "As soon as I came to Wales I got a good feeling straight away and never looked back," he said. "You appreciate every cap for what it is. Fifty kind of sneaks up on you a little bit." The single major tournament on his record is the 2022 World Cup, having missed selection for Euro 2020, and he describes qualifying through the play-offs as one of the moments he keeps coming back to. "Playing at a World Cup was the highlight. It didn't go how we wanted it to, but I dreamed of playing at a World Cup from a young age."
Cardiff in 2028 is the target
Wales did not make this summer's World Cup, which leaves Euro 2028 as the obvious next thing, and the tournament has an unusual pull for this group because Cardiff is one of the eight host cities. "Even when I think about having a Euros here now, it is special," Johnson said. "We've got a good squad and a lot of players playing at a good level. Everyone knows it's coming up and it motivates us to work hard and show what we can do."
He also thinks Craig Bellamy's squad can borrow something from what came before them, specifically the side that reached the Euro 2016 semi-finals. "There's a real confidence and I think it comes from the groups that were before. Even before I was playing for Wales, the lads got far in the Euros and it gives you the confidence that it is possible." He is realistic about the comparison. "It's difficult because there were some unbelievable players in the past and it's hard to replicate directly against those players. But as a team we want to give everything we've got."
The club form has not followed
His domestic career began at Nottingham Forest, where his goals carried the club into the Premier League in 2022 and kept them there the following season. The 47.5 million pound move to Tottenham that followed made him the second-most expensive Welsh signing after Gareth Bale, and his Europa League final winner against Manchester United ended a 17-year wait for a trophy. He joined Everton in the summer after a short spell at Crystal Palace and has scored once this season, in the Carabao Cup. He is not treating that as the end of the story. "There's definitely more to come and I'm excited for the next years. I'm really happy with what I've achieved in football. But at the same time I want to achieve more, especially with Wales."
Player context: Brennan Johnson, 25, Everton forward, debuted for Wales in 2020 and is set for his 50th cap against Norway at the Ullevaal Stadion on Saturday 14 November, 17:00 GMT, in Nations League Group A4. Previous clubs: Nottingham Forest, Tottenham Hotspur, Crystal Palace.
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