Fikayo Tomori credits Albion loan spell with helping him achieve World Cup glory

The 19-year-old started the final against Venezuela on Sunday as Dominic Calvert-Lewin scored the decisive goal in their 1-0 victory.

That triumph marks England’s first major tournament success at any age level since they won the World Cup back in 1966.

Tomori made nine appearances for Albion, on loan from his parent club Chelsea, as he helped secure promotion to the Premier League.

Now he has told how Championship games, such as the 2-1 victory at Queens Park Rangers, helped him develop.

He said: “It was very beneficial. Being part of a promotion-winning side gives you confidence. Even although I didn’t play as much as I would have liked to, I still played a part in it.

“It helped me on a footballing level, being around the quality players that Brighton have. It taught me a lot and gave me the chance to carry that into the tournament – which I think I did.

“The QPR game was quite an intense game, especially in the last ten minutes when they were putting every ball into the box.

“There were games like that in the World Cup, where we had our backs against the wall and really had to defend for our lives. We had to do the dirty side of the game, and the QPR game was very much like that. That certainly helped me and I was able to cope with it when playing for England.

“It was my first loan, so it was very important that I tried to learn and pick up as much information as possible.

“Everyone at Brighton really helped me; I wouldn’t really single anyone out. The staff were fantastic with me, and that all helped towards a really good experience for me.”

Tomori mentioned the support he received following his success.

He said: “Glenn Murray, Anthony (Knockaert), Solly (March) and Beram (Kayal) have all tweeted me. I’ve had a lot of nice messages, and then obviously from people at Chelsea as well.

“It’s been a crazy few days and I’ve had a lot of nice messages. It hasn’t really sunk in yet.”