Ex-Nottingham Forest forward Ben Brereton has earned a surprise call-up to play for Chile in their upcoming World Cup qualifiers.
The 21-year-old has enjoyed a decent season at Blackburn Rovers, scoring seven goals and claiming five assists.
He has been at Ewood Park since the summer of 2019 when Rovers parted with £7 million to sign him from Forest.
Brereton has taken some time to get going with the 1995 Premier League winners – although he did win some of his critics over last season.
His call-up for the Chile national team is certainly a surprise.
Brereton qualifies as his mother comes from the nation and he’s now ready to stamp his colours to the mast at international level.
He has represented England at youth level but making the senior ranks would be ambitious to say the least.
Martin Lasarte has now named the ex-Forest talisman in his squad for forthcoming games against Argentina and Bolivia.
If he impresses, the Copa America starts in June and he could throw himself into contention for the tournament.
Chile need to get going in their World Cup campaign. They have just four points from as many games and sit in sixth place in their ten-team group.
Should Forest have persisted with Brereton?
Not really but that won’t stop supporters monitoring his career and wishing him well on international duty.
The fee Forest received for Brereton was substantial after nine goals in 57 appearances for the Reds.
He’s taken 88 games to score the same amount for Blackburn and it has to be said that the Reds did negotiate a decent deal.
Playing for Chile is certainly interesting and it’ll be intriguing to see if he gets the chance to play during the upcoming matches.