As England stars Joe Gomez and Ezri Konsa posed together for a photo – Konsa with his arm slung around Gomez’s shoulder, the pair beaming for the camera dressed in their training gear sporting the Three Lions crest over their chests, it filled their former mentors at Charlton Athletic with pride.

The duo, who both came through the Addicks’ Academy, secured their places on the plane for this summer’s EURO 2024 in Germany and they’ve both come a long way in the last decade.

“I can just imagine pair of them and the sort of conversations they’re having – Ezri will still be joking and laughing around, and Joe will be calming him down!” Joe Francis, Charlton’s Head of Education, laughs. “It won’t be a lot different to the way they behaved when they were in our Academy.”

Neither Gomez nor Konsa have forgotten their roots and acknowledge that, without their football upbringing in South London, they wouldn’t be where they are today, which was why they invited the Club’s Academy Director, Steve Avory, to attend England’s game against Belgium at Wembley as their guest of honour.

Avory recalls: “I’d had that bit of contact with them a month or so earlier in March when they played Brazil and Belgium. I was at the Belgium game myself where I met up with the two lads and their families afterwards, so that was a really enjoyable occasion.

“When I was at Wembley, they both came over to me as I was sat there with my wife and my family, and I think my wife didn’t realise at the time just how much I had meant to them in terms of their journeys.

“I know they were probably on tenterhooks a little bit regarding this selection for the Euros, but they’ve got there. It’s deserving – even though I’m biased – on the strength of their consistent performances this season at Club level.”

Gomez first joined Charlton’s Academy aged 10. However, Avory quickly realised that the Catford-born defender was capable of playing above his age group and challenged him to go higher. In the end, the youngster bypassed the Under-21s and entered the first team at 17 years of age.

His senior debut came in the League Cup against Colchester United, after putting pen to paper on his first professional deal in October 2014. And just a week later, Gomez – whose dad still champions the Club’s Academy – made his league bow at The Valley in a Championship clash against Derby County.

“They had two different pathways really – if you were to look at them as individuals, there are lots of similarities but lots of differences, too,” Francis explains. “I first met Joe when he was about 12. As a result of him being in our Academy, I used to make visits to his school. He was in quite a talented group at school – he went to Forest Hill School for boys – and in his same year was Kasey Palmer and Regan Charles-Cook.

“He was always so unassuming, polite and humble – he was such a down-to-earth kid with a quiet way about him. He had lots of pressures on him because he was fast tracked – he very quickly made the transition to the fringes of the first team.

“I remember the day that it was confirmed that he was leaving. I remember being out in the car park and Joe walking out and saying, ‘I think this is it, Joe – I’m gone’, and I gave him a hug.”

Almost inevitably, his performances caught the eye of top tier giants Liverpool and in 2015, Gomez was Merseyside bound. At Anfield, he’s won just about every piece of silverware going – including the Premier League title, the Champions League and the FA Cup.

“I always called him ‘Steady Joe’ – that’s what he was,” Avory adds. “He was very dedicated and competitive – hard on himself at times and I had to manage that with him because he hated it when he was not just beaten on the pitch but when he came off the pitch and knew he’d not performed well. But that taught me a lot about the desire that he had to become a better player.”

Konsa’s journey differed in comparison to Gomez’s route, although the current Aston Villa defender often found himself likened to the versatile Liverpool man, with both Addicks youngsters having experimented with playing anywhere across the backline and in midfield.

Back in 2010, when Francis first arrived at the Club, Charlton established an innovative collaboration with a local school – the likes of which only the Addicks, Manchester United and Watford were testing – to coincide with the Elite Player Performance Plan.

As a result, it saw school boys – including Konsa – transfer to the nearby Harris Academy Greenwich which was located close to the Club’s training facility, to allow them more contact time during the working week.

“Ezri was in the first inaugural cohort – it gave him exposure to more training and more development,” Francis remembers.

“He was completely different to Joe. Ezri was a cheeky chappy – he had a great personality which stretched the boundaries sometimes. He was just a bit of a joker. Chris Tomlinson (Executive Principal) and I used to speak a lot about Ezri every day – just about managing his exuberance and his behaviour and balancing it.”

The 26-year-old – who, similarly, made his debut in the League Cup in August 2016 – clocked over 80 appearances for the Club, helping the Addicks to reach the Play-Offs and narrowly miss out on promotion from League One in 2017/18.

After making the switch to Championship outfit Brentford in the summer 2018, it wasn’t long before the Premier League beckoned as he linked up with his old boss Dean Smith at Villa Park.

Francis comments: “I was in the school at least two or three times a week and I’d have a weekly review and at the top of the list was always Ezri. We had to have an honest chat when we offered him his scholarship and we said, ‘Look, you’re going to have to toe the line and with all this kidding around and joking, you need to get serious otherwise there’ll be consequences.’

“The transition from his school years to coming in as an apprentice was remarkable and he grew up pretty quick. He always knew the line with me – if I had to reel him in, he responded. There was a real respect because I worked with him, not against him.”

For the best part of the last 20 years, Avory and Francis have worked closely to make the Club’s Academy a roaring success. The duo were well-acquainted with Avory – who worked as a PE teacher before joining the Addicks in January 2001 – having taught Francis during his own education.

Together, they have built upon the foundations that were already in place and, judging by Gareth Southagte’s selections for the upcoming tournament, have achieved what they set out to do and more.

Avory explains: “One of the factors behind coming here was I knew Charlton already had a tradition in producing players coming through from the Academy environment – players like Lee Bowyer, Scott Parker and Paul Konchesky. Jonjo Shelvey was one of the first in my time that went through to the Premier League and another one was Carl Jenkinson.

“I’ve seen the fruits of my labour come through and that’s motivated me to produce more and more. My longevity has helped in terms of leadership of the Academy. There’s always been a belief from above and a confidence about us being able to produce players.

“I get even more satisfaction when players like Joe and Ezri are selected for England because I was fortunate enough to manage and coach at national level with the England Under-16s from 1991 to 1994. I’ve seen what it meant to them to play for a national team, so when I see that sparkle in players’ eyes when they do get selected for their country, I realise it just means so much to them.”

Indeed, both players tasted success at international level across the youth groups. Gomez was a part of the England team that were crowned the Under-17 European champions in the summer of 2014.

Konsa, meanwhile, won the Under-20 World Cup with the Three Lions back in 2017, alongside fellow Addicks Academy graduate Ademola Lookman who made the headlines most recently when the 26-year-old netted a hat-trick in the 2024 Europa League Final for Serie A side Atalanta.

“Me and Steve often say that if we could put a squad out of our Academy starlets, we’d be in the Premier League!” Francis says. “That’s the thing about our Club – if you’re good enough, you’ll get opportunities.

“Both Joe and Ezri were Young Player of the Year at our Club. Joe was runner-up for LFE’s Apprentice of the Year – we’ve had five winners of that award. With any of our young players that win those awards, we make it clear that now you’re here to inspire others that are coming up and you create a cycle which creates an aspirational culture.”

Charlton – who also signed Chelsea and England midfielder Conor Gallagher on loan for the first half of the 2019/20 Championship campaign – continue to produce the next generation under the tutelage of both Avory and Francis and the future certainly looks bright.

Francis adds: “It’s great when you can talk about players like Joe, Ezri, Ademola, Karlan Grant and Alfie Doughty and a whole host of others that have trodden the same path. If you can use role models like that and tell stories and share experiences to ones that are coming through, what you’re doing is create a sense of belonging.

“We’re doing a lot of things right at our place. We’ve had a conveyer belt of talent and it’s not letting up any time soon.”