Former Riddlesdown High School student Nigel Reo-Coker could be rubbing shoulders with the likes of Ronaldinho next month after being named as a stand-by in England's World Cup squad.

The West Ham midfielder is one of five players, along with Crystal Palace's Andy Johnson, on stand-by in Sven Goran Eriksson's squad for next month's World Cup.

A call-up to the World Cup squad would cap off a special week for the former Croydon schoolboy who will lead out West Ham in this Saturday's FA Cup final against Liverpool at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

And the success of the Riddlesdown High pupil has not gone unnoticed by his former Croydon schools football manager David Lomas who says the 21-year-old was always destined for great things.

Mr Lomas said: "I remember one day I stood in for the manager of one of the Croydon schools teams that Nigel was playing in and I took them to the London Schools Shield final and we beat the opposing team 5-0.

"Nigel played very well in that game and you could see then that he was going to be a very good player he has also kept in touch with people in Croydon which is always nice to see."