Ndukwu: England U17s & Exams

Alongside this, Layton will be sitting two exams – Geography and Economics – as well as revising for upcoming tests that he’ll take when he’s back in England. An unthinkable challenge for someone who could potentially be representing his country three times in six days. 

“I’ve been revising hard all year, so it shouldn’t be too bad,” Ndukwu told LCFC.com. “Doing school work when you’re away passes a bit of time. When you’re away you have a lot of free time, so it’s good. 

“We have exams while we’re away, so in some cases I’ll just go there and take the exams, but I’ll also have other lessons to study Maths and other subjects, because when I go back to school, I’ll have my other exams as well. I still need to revise for them. I should do fine – I work hard in school. I got As and Bs in my mock exams!” 

The 16-year-old attacker, who has been at Leicester City’s Academy since the age of nine, could next be involved when the young Lions face Holland on Sunday 10 May.

And while the upcoming opposition are well rated across the continent’s youth stage, Layton believes the togetherness in the England camp will help them add to what has already been a productive few years from his nation. 

“Everyone plays at Under-18s and Under-21s level, so we all know each other well,” said the young Fox. “There’s been a lot of tournaments, so everyone’s got a similar amount of caps to each other. 

“We’re all familiar with each other, and we’re expected to go far because of how well the team did last year. We’ve got a difficult group, so we’ve got to get past that first. 

“I’ve played in European qualifiers, Elite Rounds and international tournaments. One of the challenges is to manage your fatigue levels especially in the later part of the tournament. 

“Being away from home isn’t much of an issue. There’s decent banter in the squad, so everyone makes you feel welcome.” 

Already, Layton has scored a perfect hat-trick for England’s Under-17s against Cyprus in October to help them qualify for the finals of the tournament, and also netted in the win over Norway in March. 

Despite this, the youngster insisted that scoring against Brazil last year was his favourite moment in an England shirt, ultimately because it highlighted his progression on the international stage. 

“The year before I scored that goal, we played against Brazil, but I was on the bench,” he added. “A year on, this year, I started and I scored, so that was the biggest thing for me because I’ve shown I’ve grown a lot in the England team myself. That was probably the best game I’ve played for England as well.” 

Layton went on to make a reference to a number of the Club’s Academy graduates who have made their first team debuts, outlining Ghana international Jeff Schlupp as someone he can certainly learn a lot from. 

He added: “It’s clear that there’s opportunities there. Jeff Schlupp keeps raising the bar. He had a few appearances for Ghana so he’s someone to look up to definitely. 

“I speak to Kingy (Andy King) and Liam Moore quite a bit. They tell me to keep working hard, and I will. I know there are areas of my game I need to work on and I enjoy dribbling at opponents.” 

Director of Football Jon Rudkin has seen Layton progress through the ranks at the Club, often guiding him from the side-lines when the Under-18s play their Barclays U18 Premier League fixtures on a Saturday morning. 

And Rudkin feels that playing at the peak of Under-17s football in a side as talented as England will certainly help further Layton’s development. 

He told LCFC.com: “Tournament football is different to his regular games programme. The quick succession of games is going to be really important to him in terms of how he prepares and recovers between games. 

“It’s a real big education as a young player to go and experience these type of events, and also to play on foreign shores, coping with a completely different climate. It’ll be a really wide learning curve to take forward. 

“To be playing at this level in a European finals tournament is a terrific achievement. We hope that England progress as far as they can. Within that year band he’s one of the younger members of the group, and he’s one of the few that are still at school as a number are now at clubs full time as first year scholars. 

“He’s got the adaptability to play in numerous positions, which England have already played him in. he should be looking forward to the tournament, and hopefully he’ll do well.” 

While many will be relaxing in between England’s fixtures at the team’s hotel out in Bulgaria, Layton will be studying for exams. 

But as tiring as it sounds, Rudkin believes this won’t affect Layton. In fact, it will help in managing the downtime between games. 

He added: “The management of the downtime is a real key aspect. When you hear international managers reflect on World Cups and European championships, they often speak about managing that down time. 

“There’s a lot of recovery and time spent in trying to relax while preparing in between games. These tournaments are vital for any young player because it’s totally different to a normal weekly schedule for any player. 

“There’s been great strides made in English football in learning about these periods, so the education for such a young player will be very important. 

“In the modern day, there’s opportunities now to play games on phones, Playstations and iPads, when years ago, they didn’t have that. That now helps them to relax, at least, but even then mentally they still have to relax. 

“They have to sometimes switch off from playing and thinking about the football, and then focus on the game when it’s the correct time.” 

To keep up-to-date with Layton’s England progress, make sure you check back into LCFC.com in the coming days.