England footballers watch Doodle Boy create mural

A 13-year-old illustrator who signed a deal with sports brand Nike was watched by England footballers as he created a mural in their honour.

Joe Whale, known as The Doodle Boy, came up with a new alien or monster to represent each of the World Cup squad members, father Greg Whale said.

Joe met captain Harry Kane and other players when he drew the 23ft (7m) by 6ft (2m) piece in pen.

He said: "It was fun and they were all really nice."

Manchester City fan Joe, from Shrewsbury, visited England HQ, St George's Park in Staffordshire, on Monday with his dad and twin brother Jesse. England later set off for the tournament in Qatar.

He completed the mural in about three hours, including breaks.

He admitted afterwards he was "definitely a bit nervous to meet them, because we're quite big football fans".

Joe first came to prominence at the age of nine when he created a mural at a Shropshire restaurant after his work was featured on an Instagram account.

Mr Whale said he posted footage on his LinkedIn page and got 2.7m views.

Following this week's exploits, Joe's father said: "The surreal part was the England players were going to him - you'd normally expect the kids to go to the players.

"At one point, 10 of them stood there watching in a bit of amazement at what was happening, live."

Joe, who had also created a mural for England's Lionesses, "doesn't draw real life", according to his dad.

Instead, he made stylised drawings, with each character that represented a player bearing their initials.

The "idea was to have the England team find themselves on the mural", Mr Whale said, adding skipper Kane "found himself quite quickly".

City defender Kyle Walker was among the players Joe met.

"[He] went and tapped Joe on the shoulder," Mr Whale said. "Joe didn't know he was there. It's not every day a player you really follow comes and taps you on the shoulder."

The mural also featured a character for England manager Gareth Southgate, the Wembley arch and the Swoosh logo of Nike, the England kit manufacturer.

Mr Whale said the level of detail and the "size of the mural versus Joe" had led some people to say "there is no way he could do it".

He added: "I think it showed on the players' faces a little bit... You could see they were shocked he could do something like that, especially with the England squad there."

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