Under the tutelage of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Luke Shaw has reached new heights, and his incredible comeback story only accelerated at Euro 2020.
Shaw, who was an unused substitute in the opening game against Croatia, has built on a strong season at Manchester United to secure the left-back spot for his country.
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After been reinstated to the England squad in March for the first time since 2018, he is in the best shape of his life, six years after suffering a devastating double leg fracture.
Shaw had to wait 2,551 days for his next opportunity to play for the Three Lions in a major Shaw, 25, continues to put his horrific injury toll behind him, but there is one aspect of his background that he cannot escape, no matter how hard he tries.
While Shaw is thriving under Gareth Southgate's tutelage, former Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has questioned his place in the team.
Mourinho was Shaw's manager at United from 2016 until his sacking in 2018, and he was vocal in his criticism of the England international.
Following a 1-1 draw with Everton in 2017, the then-Manchester United manager took aim at Shaw, claiming: "He [Shaw] was in front of me and I was making every choice for him." He needs to retrain his football mind. competition, but he pounced at it.
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We need his incredible physical and technical abilities, but he can't keep messing with my head.”
When explaining why the Southampton recruit has only made two appearances in four months, he went on to say Shaw is "a long way behind" his United teammates.
Mourinho, now a pundit, is still picking on Shaw's flaws three years later, labelling his set-piece delivery versus Czech Republic as "extremely awful" and "dramatically bad."
When asked about Mourinho's remarks, Shaw responded that he "clearly can't move on" and that "clearly I'm in his thoughts."
It was an unwelcome diversion for Shaw, whose comeback tale had the support of the entire football world.
On Sunday, Shaw was England's most inventive player, and he's progressed under the tutelage of two coaches, Solskjaer and Southgate, who both clearly trust in him.
Shaw's set-piece delivery was expected to be "dramatically poor," yet he came up with two assists at the start of the second half to put England's quarter-final match against Ukraine beyond reach.
His free-kick found Harry Maguire, who made an overlapping run to cross for Kane minutes later — a suitable rebuttal to Jose Mourinho's recent criticism of his set-pieces.
“From the outside something seems to have really clicked with [Luke Shaw] in the last 18 months,” Frank Lampard told BBC.
“You always had the feeling he is a machine and you can get what you want from him and now we are seeing that.”
On Sunday though Shaw exacted the ultimate revenge, even if it was completely unintentional.
Not only did he prove his former manager wrong, he did so on Stadio Olimpico - the ground of Mourinho’s new team.
Like it was written in the stars, he did so just a day after Mourinho had arrived to start work.
Providing expert opinion for talkSPORT, Mourinho admitted: “Luke Shaw is playing better and better”.
Shaw admitted last year that his fractured relationship with Mourinho left him with “no confidence”.
“I was losing my belief,” he told Sky Sports at the time.
Now though he has become just the second English player to lay on three assists at a single European Championship tournament.
The other? David Beckham.
No longer “a long way behind”, Shaw is now at the front of the pack and the entire football world is watching.
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