As the full-time whistle sounded around Wembley stadium on Wednesday night, as the lingering whispers of Italia 90, Euro 96 and the 2018 World Cup were finally silenced by a chorus of passion, joy and ‘Sweet Caroline’, there were two moments that perfectly encapsulated what England’s success and journey to the final of Euro 2020 means to the nation.
England’s Success is About More Than Football
Role Models Both on and Off the Pitch
While the players and fans basked in a moment of history, while manager Gareth Southgate exorcised the demons on the ground where they were first summoned a quarter of a century ago, Mason Mount removed his shirt. Kalvin Phillips, meanwhile, put one on.
Spotting a young girl a few rows back from the pitch, the Chelsea midfielder skipped over the advertising hoardings to hand her his crumpled shirt. It was a suitably touching gesture: tears of equal shock and happiness streamed down her face as she turned to embrace her smiling father who knew, as perhaps we all did, that this was a day that would be treasured forever.
Around the same time, Phillips, who over these last four weeks has proved a pivotal cog in Southgate’s midfield machine, trotted across the turf in an England shirt with the words ‘Granny Val’ printed on the back. A moving tribute to the Leeds United player’s late grandmother who passed away in February, as his country overcame a spirited Denmark side after a physically and emotionally draining 120 minutes, it was clear to see where Phillips’ thoughts were.
But they were emblematic of where a significant portion of his country’s thoughts were too. As the England men’s team progressed to their first final in 55 years, there will have been many watching on, from Wembley and from afar, whose first thought will have been of those no longer here: the mothers and fathers, the brothers and sisters, the sons and daughters who would have loved nothing more than to witness – to experience – all of this.
And so, as embodied by the actions of Mount and Phillips, Wednesday was an evening of both euphoric elation and immense poignancy. Far be it from us to imply that the devastating effects of the pandemic have been felt exclusively by those in England, but the last 15 months have impacted families up and down the country in unimaginable ways. Jobs have been taken away, lives have been cruelly cut short, and crucial moments in the social and academic development of the young population have been lost, never to be reclaimed.
Pride in Times of Unprecedented Adversity
Yet, amidst uncertainty, adversity and political ineptitude, the achievements of this England team – a collective unit of righteous, articulate, intelligent human beings – has helped restore at least a little of something resembling pride. Despite all the debate about selection, tactics and formations, despite all the discourse around gestures and tokenism, Southgate and his players have stayed true to their beliefs, refusing to be swayed by external pressures. They are mature and principled in ways rarely synonymous with their sport. They are special in ways that extend far beyond the confines of a football pitch.
Such is the great irony of this summer’s European Championships then: that the frankly bonkers tournament of everywhere and also nowhere, that for months beforehand promised to be utterly soulless, should prove to be the inspiring pick me up many of us so desperately needed. From the #BoyFromBrent to the Danish Wall, from renewed rivalries to the events of June 28 – a Monday the likes of which The Bangles might write a song about – Euro 2020 has served as yet another telling case in point for the unparalleled transcendent nature of international sport.
And so as the clock ticks ever closer to Sunday’s showdown with Italy, as the days, hours, and minutes are wished away in nervous anticipation, this should be time for quiet reflection as much as rapturous noise – time for introspection as much as celebrating the size of Harry Maguire’s head. It should be a moment to take stock of the world we now find ourselves in: a period to consider everything football is so often representative of.
In that sense then, for England fans at least, ‘Three Lions’ – something of a de facto national anthem – serves as a rather fitting ode for our times. Often misconstrued as arrogance, the words ‘Football’s coming home’ are, rather, an expression of the pain and heartache of the present as well as a longing for the days of a bygone era. But ultimately – and most importantly – the song is a stirring call to the future: a rallying cry to join together in hope. Hope for success. Hope for a unified nation. And perhaps most aptly of all, hope for a brighter tomorrow as England’s success continues.
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