England Under-21s received a warm welcome on their first training session in Kielce ahead of this week’s Euro Finals.
Aidy Boothroyd’s squad arrived at their base in the town to find 300 youngsters from local schools waiting to watch and eventually join in with the session.
And they were soon joined by the Mayor of Kielce, Wojciech Lubawski, who presented Boothroyd with a specially commissioned painting before he was given a signed England shirt from the squad, handed over by captain James Ward-Prowse.
The Young Lions then engaged with their new local fans, as they joined in with a warm-up and then got the chance to take some penalties before the squad signed autographs and posed for photographs.
From there, the England squad and staff headed to the Homo Homini memorial in the town, which was created in 2001 following the 9/11 atrocity to commemorate victims of terrorist activity from around the world.
Wreaths were placed and each player placed a candle at the base of the imposing monument in memory of the recent attacks in Manchester and London.
“We came here to show our respect to the victims back home in Manchester and London over the last few weeks,” said Southampton midfielder Ward-Prowse.
“The whole world unites against terrorism and those who lost their lives in conflict and we thought it was important to do this on our first day here.”
England’s opening game in the Championship is on Friday afternoon when the Young Lions take on Sweden at the Kielce Stadium.
They then face Slovakia at the same venue on Monday 19 June before taking on the host nation Poland on Thursday 23 June.
