Ellis Simms is now in line for a Poland call-up next month. The 25-year-old Coventry City striker has had his Polish citizenship application approved, with the passport paperwork described as a formality. The route to a Polish shirt is suddenly open.

Head coach Jan Urban will announce his November squad on 6 November, with Poland set to play Romania on 14 November and Sweden on 17 November in the UEFA Nations League. Simms, eligible through his Polish grandmother, is a live contender to be in it.

He has never played a senior game for England, which is what makes the switch possible. Appearances for the Under-18s and Under-20s do not tie a player to a federation under FIFA’s eligibility rules. Poland got there first.

Urban: “He’s not Erling Haaland”

Urban was keeping expectations in check even before the paperwork cleared. Speaking to TVP Sport in September, the Poland head coach made clear that any call-up would come on merit, not sentiment.

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“He’s not Erling Haaland. He played regularly in the Championship, but things weren’t going so well for him at Everton,” Urban told TVP Sport.

“First, the paperwork: the passport and all the formalities. Only then will he be considered.”

The gap Urban is trying to fill is real. Robert Lewandowski is still Poland’s talismanic striker at 38, and the search for a credible back-up has produced few obvious answers. Simms, who scored 13 Championship goals as Coventry won promotion last season under Frank Lampard, is at least a working option.

The family route

Simms was born in Oldham and spent his formative years in Everton’s academy before moving to Coventry. His connection to Poland runs through his grandmother.

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“My grandmother was born in Poland. I’ve never been there, but I’d like to visit,” Simms told Huberto News in January 2026.

A path, not a protest

Simms is not the first dual-eligibility forward to take this route, and the calculus is familiar. England’s striker queue under Thomas Tuchel is deep and does not have an obvious vacancy at the bottom of it. A forward with one Premier League goal to his name this season was never getting a Three Lions senior call.

Poland is a different proposition: a national team short of a striker, led by a coach willing to look at a Championship-schooled forward, with the paperwork now in place. If Urban’s 6 November list includes his name, the Nations League match away to Romania on 14 November would be his first senior international.

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