Study reveals the incredible rise of Leeds United midfielder Kalvin Phillips in England fans' popularity charts

Phillips was the only outfield player to play every single minute of all three of England s European Championships group stage games.

The 'Yorkshire Pirlo' set up Raheem Sterling's winner in the opening contest against Croatia and the 25-year-old has also been a big hit online.

A new study by sports data specialists Sportmonks, Player Approval Rankings, has analysed every tweet sent about every member of the England squad since the beginning of Euro 2020 to provide a popularity ranking based on negative/positive tweets.

The study has then compared the findings to similar data from before the major tournament to see which England player has benefited or suffered the most from their form.

Every tweet posted about each player selected for the England, Spain, Germany, France, Italy, Belgium and Netherlands squads since the beginning of qualification in 2019 has been analysed, with each scored on its positive and negative sentiments before being ranked and compared to others to give an accurate ranking of each squad based on popularity.

Phillips only made his England debut last September but the 25-year-old tops the charts in the study's popularity rankings, ahead of next best Harry Maguire, Phil Foden and then Jack Grealish.

Phillips was only ranked as the 21st most popular player prior to the tournament.

Aaron Ramsdale is bottom of the list owing to his position as third goalkeeper.

Ben Chilwell is second bottom before Jordan Henderson.

Three Lions boss Southgate is the third-most popular manager of the top seven nations, with France's Didier Deschamps and Italy's Roberto Mancini the only coaches ahead of him.

https://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/sport/football/leeds-united/yorkshire-evening-post-launch-leeds-united-only-digital-subscription-ahead-premier-league-campaign-2967964

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Thank you Laura Collins