'The best feeling' - will Toney build on Saudi success with England?

Out of sight, out of mind.

That is what many thought about Ivan Toney and his chances of being called up to the England squad after he made the move to Saudi Arabia last summer.

But Three Lions boss Thomas Tuchel sprang a surprise by naming the Al-Ahli striker in his squad for Saturday's World Cup qualifier against Andorra and Tuesday's friendly against Senegal.

Tuchel justified his decision by citing Toney's impressive scoring record in Saudi Arabia - he has scored 30 in 44 games in all competitions.

"He deserves to be with us and I am convinced because he scored over 20 goals for his team this season," the German coach said.

"He won a major title with the Asian Champions League, he had a big contribution with goals and assists."

Talking to BBC Radio 5 Live, Toney insisted he never thought his England career was over.

"No, I never think negative, I always think positive, no matter the situation on and off the pitch.

"I mean if you are scoring and playing well, obviously you are still going to be in the manager's mind.

"The manager recognised that and hence why I got the recall, which is obviously the best feeling."

There have, of course, been many high-profile footballers who have made the move to Saudi Arabia in recent years.

Five-time Ballon d'Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo is perhaps the most famous of them, but there's also been Neymar, N'Golo Kante and Riyad Mahrez, who continued to be selected by their respective national teams after making the moves.

Indeed, Toney could come up against his Al-Ahli team-mate Edouard Mendy when England play Senegal next week.

Looking through the list of squads there are plenty of recognisable names playing in the Saudi Pro League but, despite that, the overall standard of the league is perceived as quite low.

In Opta's most recent Power Rankings the Saudi Pro League was ranked as just the 29th-strongest in the world, just behind the Ecuador Liga Pro.

"Toney has referenced it himself publicly that he has been very surprised by the standard for football in Saudi Arabia," Gulf-based sports journalist John McAuley, who covers the Saudi Pro League, told BBC Sport.

"It is a lot higher than he expected and obviously that is because of the influx of proper international players coming into the league now.

"Saudi always had a very high standing in Asian football - Al-Hilal are the record four-time winners of the Asian Champions League.

"The level of local players is still very good but when you think of the defenders Toney is up against, he is still playing against Aymeric Laporte at Al-Nassr, Kalidou Koulibaly at Al-Hilal, Danilo Pereira, who came from PSG to Al-Ittihad - so he is still playing against European standard players."

Regardless of the perception of the league he is playing in, there's no doubt Toney arrived at this England camp as a player in form, having enjoyed a brilliant scoring run in the second half of the season to help Al-Ahli become champions of Asia.

"He ended up with a run of something like 19 goals in his last 19 league games, finishing two goals behind Cristiano Ronaldo in the race for the Golden Boot," McAuley added.

"The huge thing, and something that really integrated him with the fans, is he played a key role in Al-Ahli winning the Asian Champions League Elite for the first time."

"Making the transition, the first moving to Saudi, it was a big one," Toney told 5 live.

"Obviously, people are going to think 'how is he going to cope and how is he going to be">