Marcus Rashford and Anthony Gordon are in direct competition for the left-sided attacking role in Thomas Tuchel’s England side. Yet it would be easy for the sense of rivalry between international team-mates to have been further stoked by recent events at club level.Gordon completed his dream €80million (£69.3m; $93.2m) move to Barcelona just prior to the national squad’s departure for their pre-World Cup training base in Florida. Rashford had hoped his own move to Camp Nou might have been made permanent on the back of a successful season-long loan from Manchester United which yielded 14 goals and 11 assists across 49 appearances. That now appears in considerable doubt.Senior executives at Barca, granted anonymity to discuss matters they are not cleared to speak publicly about, have told The Athletic that the arrival of Gordon makes the chances of Rashford staying “more complicated”. The Catalans have a deadline of June 15 to notify United if they intend to trigger the €30million (£26m, $35m) buy option for him. There have been no indications as yet that they will.It means Rashford’s own move to Barcelona, where he has settled well, has effectively been threatened — and potentially kiboshed — by the club opting to sign his England team-mate, a turn of events that creates an interesting dynamic within Tuchel’s squad.Marcus Rashford had a productive loan spell at Barcelona (Josep Lago/AFP via Getty Images)It is not unusual for rivalries created by club football to be dragged onto the international stage.Sometimes they can centre on intra-club competition. For example, Bukayo Saka and Noni Madueke go into the summer tournament competing for a starting spot on the right of England’s attack, as they have been at Arsenal all season, for all that Saka is the clear first choice under Mike Arteta and probably Tuchel, too.Then there are those players whose paths have crossed regularly, initially at club level but also with their national teams. Take Wesley Sneijder and Rafael Van Der Vaart who shared a deeply intertwined, dynamic relationship defined by a lifelong rivalry, competition with club and country, as well as a close personal friendship.Emerging from the Ajax youth academy together, they were very different personalities who pushed each other to succeed as their paths continued to cross. The attacking midfielders battled for the No 10 berth at Ajax, with Sneijder tending to prevail. Then they were briefly reunited at Real Madrid and vied for the same role for the Netherlands. How each national team manager fitted both into the same team, or took the difficult decision to utilise one over the other, became known as “the Dutch dilemma”.Wesley Sneijder and Rafael van der Vaart spent their careers competing against each other to play in the same position (Ian Walton/Getty Images)There was a similar scenario for Dani Carvajal and his Real Madrid and Spain team-mate (recently turned head coach) Alvaro Arbeloa.Arbeloa won the European Championships in 2008 and 2012, as well as the 2010 World Cup, before losing his place in the national side ahead of the 2014 World Cup to Carvajal, who also unseated him at Madrid. The latter has gone on to play over 400 games for Madrid and has won 27 major trophies, including four La Liga titles and a joint record six Champions League trophies — a feat he shares with Luka Modric.When Arbeloa succeeded Xabi Alonso as head coach earlier this year, Carvajal struggled for game time and slipped behind Trent Alexander-Arnold in the pecking order. Arbeloa has consistently had to stress there is no personal issue between the pair and told reporters in April before a La Liga clash against Real Betis: “I have always had a great relationship with him, despite what people say.”Alvaro Arbeloa talks with Dani Carvajal in the dug-out in January (Denis Doyle/Getty Images)In the past such competition for a starting spot was welcomed by managers and coaches in the belief it would raise performance standards, but it can also cause issues that can hamper and restrict.