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If there was a secret to the togetherness among the England Under-21s players as they retained their European title this summer then Brooke Norton-Cuffy may have let it slip: a card game called Werewolf. Introduced to the senior England camp during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, it pits a small informed group called the wolves against the uninformed majority known as the villagers as they attempt to deceive each other to win, in a format similar to the popular TV show The Traitors.
“We were playing every night,” says Norton-Cuffy. “It really helped us bond because you get to know people. In this day and age when everyone can be on their phones, you sit down, you have a laugh, you have a joke … the group was really, really tight, everyone was together, and you saw that on the pitch when we ended up going and winning it.”
Such is the life of a young player that Lee Carsley’s squad had only a few hours to celebrate their dramatic late victory over Germany before they went their separate ways. In Norton-Cuffy’s case, it was to board a flight to Genoa – the club he joined in August 2024 after a decade at Arsenal – before heading off on a well-deserved holiday.
“It was a quick, quick turnaround, so I would say we probably didn’t get to enjoy it as much as we should have, but I think that’s just football,” he says. “But I don’t feel like it was a shock for this group to go and win it. We all felt like: ‘We should win the tournament, and we are going to win the tournament,’ so when we did it, it was like: ‘OK, we’ve done it, we’re proud of ourselves, let’s take our holidays, but now everyone’s got to go and rip up at their clubs.’”
Norton-Cuffy has certainly taken that momentum into the Serie A campaign. Having missed a large portion of his first season owing to injuries, the 21-year-old from Southwark has become a regular under the Arsenal legend Patrick Vieira and says he is regularly recognised around the port city.
Genoa are Italy’s oldest club, founded by a group of English expatriates in 1893, and the new away shirt that Norton-Cuffy helped to promote features the St George’s Cross in a nod to their heritage.
“I feel like a lot of Italians seem to have connected with me in that way, because I’m English, and because of how the club was founded,” he says. “It’s strangely come together very nicely.”
Norton-Cuffy is following in the footsteps of another flying full-back from south London in Djed Spence, who spent four and a half months at Genoa on loan from Tottenham in 2024. Norton-Cuffy decided to leave Arsenal after successful loans at Lincoln, Rotherham, Millwall and Coventry, turning down offers from two Premier League sides and clubs in Germany.
“I wanted to come here, play and experience a new style of football, experience a new culture and put myself outside what I’d say is my comfort zone, because I could have easily stayed in England and played for an English team. But I said: ‘Let me try the challenge abroad. Let me learn a new culture.’ The Italian league is known for its defensive abilities, structure, style of play. So I said: ‘Let me come and improve on my defensive side of the game, but also show what I can do going forward and bring my own style to this league.’”
Norton-Cuffy is known for lung‑bursting runs down the right and puts his energy down to a carb‑loading regime that starts three days before a match. Many of his meals are provided by Genoa but he learned to cook at Arsenal – one of the skills young players are taught at the Hale End academy.
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“They helped me mature into a man, with stuff on the pitch and off the pitch,” says Norton-Cuffy. “At Arsenal, you’re going there and you’re learning to be better every day. If you’re not learning about football, you’re learning about how to cook. It’s come in handy, 100%. They always made sure you were doing your psychology work, stuff like that. And then on the pitch, obviously it’s Arsenal Football Club: the level, the standard is extremely high, so I feel like it has helped me out a lot.”
Genoa have made a slow start, taking two points from five league games, but playing under Vieira remains a dream come true for Norton-Cuffy. He credits the former France midfielder, who replaced Alberto Gilardino last November, for improving his positional skills: “He was a great player, he’s a great manager now and he’s helped me a lot since he’s come in. The objective is to get as high as possible. First we need to hit the 40-point mark, I think it is, make sure we’re safe, and then look from there, but I think this group is capable of doing some very good things.”
Within minutes of England’s summer triumph, Carsley was targeting a hat-trick of victories for the under-21s in 2027. Norton‑Cuffy, part of the under‑19s squad that won their European title in 2022, is expected to start the under-21s’ qualifiers against Moldova and Andorra this month and says Carsley has also been a major influence on his career.
“When I had difficult moments last year, he would take the time out to give me a call, say: ‘Keep going, you know your quality,’ give you a little pep talk. He’s always there. When you’re playing for the under-21s, they stress it in every single camp: the goal is not to be in the under-21s, the goal is to be in England’s first team. So it’s dependent on what I do for the under-21s and how well I do at my club. It’s for me to push myself out there and that’s on me.”
