The semi-final and tournament showpiece will be held at Wembley stadium and the Three Lions manager has urged his youngsters to make it the highlight of their careers

Roy Hodgson feels staging the Euro 2020 semi-finals and final at Wembley Stadium can inspire England’s youngsters to success in the tournament.

Uefa announced earlier on Friday that the national stadium will host the event for the first time since the Euro 1996 showpiece.

The likes of Raheem Sterling, Jack Wilshere, Phil Jones and Danny Welbeck will all still be under 30 years of age by the time to tournament starts, and Hodgson feels it could be the highlight of their careers.

“It is tremendous for English football that in 2020 we will be hosting the European Championship final and semi-finals,” Hodgson told the Football Association’s official website.

“It can only be positive. Particularly for the young team that is emerging. If the young players of today don’t use that as a spur then they will be making a big mistake.

“In 2020 they will be reaching the age of 27, 29. There will be hardly any of them who will be over 30.

“It must be something incredibly valuable for them to be able to look forward in their career, because their career has only just started at the top, top level.

“But they can finish it, or get close to the end of it, by playing two games at Wembley in the Euros in 2020.”

With Euro 2020 still just under six years away, Hodgson hopes the current crop can learn valuable tournament experience ahead of time.

He said: “Our main concern is the one in 2016 in France when all our players need to be 100 per cent focused, to get to France and when they get to France doing a good job.

“And if we can do that that will boost their confidence for the Russian experience in 2018. And by 2020 some of them will be playing in their fifth tournament.

“That is the type of experience you can’t buy. And we’ve seen with this German team which has won the World Cup that for many of the players it was their third or their fourth major tournament, maybe more if you count some of the Under-21 tournaments.”

The tournament, which is to be staged all across Europe for the first time, will see each of Munich, Rome, St Petersburg and Baku host one quarter-final and three group-stage games.

Hodgson added: “I’m delighted for the English FA, and it is a tribute to the marvellous work done by Greg Dyke and Alex Horne. It is a marvellous result for English football. It is everything that the English FA could have hoped for.

“We are on the back of a disappointing World Cup. We were slightly unlucky but it was a major disappointment, but I feel now there is a great deal of optimism within the squad that this could be an interesting period going forward for English football.

“I think this is a great result for England and hopefully people will celebrate it.”

Source Goal