Vale has been handed the armband for the tournament in Slovakia, during which the young Lions have successfully navigated a path through to their first final since 2017, when they last lifted the trophy.

Among the England contingent five years ago were Dujon Sterling, Reece James and Mason Mount, the latter picking up UEFA’s Player of the Tournament award after helping his country to a 2-1 triumph over Portugal.

As Vale, along with Chelsea team-mates Teddy Sharman-Lowe and Bashir Humphreys, prepares to do the same at Spartak Trnava’s Anton Malatinsky stadium, he will be drawing inspiration from those predecessors and fulfilling some long-held ambitions.

‘I remember watching this tournament when I was 14 and watching them win, dreaming of one day playing in this tournament myself,’ Vale revealed.

‘For a lot of the boys, it’s probably the biggest game of their career.’

Mount has passed on some invaluable guidance on how to handle the expectations of tournament football, while many others back at Cobham have been in touch to show the Blues contingent their support.

‘We saw Mason at St George’s Park a couple of weeks back when we had our pre-camp and he gave me some words of advice on how to deal with the pressure, the tournament and stuff like that. He’s been good to me.

‘There’s been lots of noise from back home! I’ve had lots of congratulations, messages from the club and academy directors. The Under-23s are on a pre-season tour and they’ve all sent me a group message.

‘They’re all really proud of us and rooting for us to hopefully get the win.’

England and Israel met in the group stage last weekend, with Ian Foster’s men claiming a narrow win to secure top spot. However, Vale knows this final will be a completely different proposition as the two teams do battle for the ultimate glory.

‘It’s hard to compare and analyse that game,’ added the 18-year-old winger. ‘The conditions were quite tough to play football in and the pitch was very wet.

‘They could afford to lose and still go through [to the semi-finals] so it’s hard to analyse that one. We’ve looked at that footage against France and stuff so we’ll be ready.’

England take on Israel in the Under-19 European Championship final this evening, kick-off 7pm UK time. You can follow the action and cheer on our boys on BBC iPlayer’s live broadcast.