It has been an unusual journey, initially a tough one. Dier, the son of a former tennis professional, Jeremy, who represented Great Britain in the 1970s and 1980s, and the grandson, on the maternal side, of Ted Croker, a former secretary of the FA, he moved to Portugal because his mother, Louise, took a job there in the lead-up to Euro 2004. Soon enough Eric, playing school football, caught the eye of a local coach and was recommended to Sporting. His progress was such it became, at 14, practical to move into the academy, study and train with young aspirants, who, like Ronaldo years earlier, came from provincial Portugal, or overseas.