Crystal Palace captain Marc Guehi has cemented himself as England’s first-choice centre-back less than three years after his first call-up.

The £75 million rated defender became a constant in the Three Lions defence at this summer’s European Championship, missing just one game on England’s route to the final.

His steady ascendancy to the top of the international game has eclipsed anything seen from a Palace player with Three Lions on their shirt, becoming the most capped England international while at the South London club.

To the casual football observers, Guehi’s rise to the forefront of the national team came as a shock. However, the centre-back has been quietly perfecting his craft for three years at Crystal Palace.

An Under-17s World Cup winner, the Chelsea academy product quickly established himself as a leader within the Palace dressing room, he joined Palace with a presence about him, a defender who would lead by example while invariably remaining cool, calm and collected. 

It was immediately clear that Guehi had the personality to climb to the very top, with Premier League football expected to develop his game. 

Develop, he did. Forming a partnership alongside Joachim Andersen in his first three seasons at Crystal Palace, Guehi honed in on his natural ability, progressing his game with confidence. There were mistakes along the way, but that was not a shock for a then-21-year-old coming into the top flight of English football.

Guehi, Andersen(Image: PA)

In his first season at the South London outfit, Guehi aided the Eagles to a 12th-placed finish alongside an FA Cup semi-final against his boyhood club, Chelsea. After joining Palace for £18 million, the fourth-highest transfer fee in the club’s history, Guehi rapidly became adored by the Selhurst Park faithful and finished second for the Palace Player of the Year behind Blues loanee Conor Gallagher. 

Guehi’s unabating quality shone through in that first season, and it has only grown since. Defensively, he is superb, while his class on the ball is only second to Adam Wharton in the Palace side. More often than not, he receives possession at the back with tranquillity before picking out a pin-point pass or galloping on one of his trademark drives from defence to attack.

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The centre-back has already passed several litmus tests with flying colours, and during the difficult spells Palace have faced in the past three years - a 12-game winless run under Vieria, Hodgson’s horror show last season and this term’s disastrous start - Guehi has always been the standout, setting the precedent for his colleagues to follow. 

Despite Palace’s sub-par start to the season, Guehi has scored twice, flaunted an impressive 86% passing accuracy, while winning 63% of his aerial duels and 65% of his ground duels. 

Palace have provided an immense platform for Guehi to grow into the incredible professional he is today, which reached new heights at the Euros in Germany. The Crystal Palace star was England’s standout talent in their run to the final, and although the four weeks ended in heartbreak, Guehi’s stock increased with the centre-back recognised for his wellspring of quality in Opta’s Team of the Tournament. 

Fast forwarding to the past week, caretaker England boss Lee Carsley lauded the 24-year-old after Sunday’s demolishing of Ireland while confessing Guehi still has a lot more to give under incoming boss Thomas Tuchel. 

“I made Marc captain when I was in the Under-21s. He’s a player who has shown leadership qualities throughout his career so far,” Carsley shared.

“His maturity [is evident] not only on the pitch but off the pitch. The fact that Marc is so calm and composed next to the debutants is brilliant.

(Image: PA)

“He’s had a really good camp. He’s playing really well at Palace in the games that I have seen and he’s moving in the right direction in terms of his quality.

“When he plays for England he probably goes up another level as well. I still think there is a lot more to come from Marc. Physically, he’s fast and he’s aggressive. 

“On the ball, he is excellent as well so he just needs to keep improving. There’s good competition for places in that centre-back position but Marc is definitely worthy of his position.”

With 18 months remaining on his contract, one of Palace’s most valuable assets is likely to leave the club at the end of the season for less than the £65m Newcastle offered this summer. However, Palace still stand to make an excellent profit on an extraordinary talent destined to be an integral leader in the England dressing room for many years to come.