ST PETERSBURG: There was just an hour or so left for England’s quarterfinal against Sweden, but Gareth Southgate stood in the top tier of Samara Arena, with a beer glass in his hand.
As England fans walked up to take selfies with him, he smiled, put an arm around them and posed. Of course, it wasn’t Southgate. It was someone impersonating the England boss. But with a navy-blue waistcoat and salt-and-pepper stubble, he looked every bit like his intended target.
Before this World Cup began, the aloof, soft-spoken Southgate was the last person you’d expect to get his own impersonator. But with just a couple more matches left, he has captured the imagination of a nation that is not used to dealing with footballing success of this kind.
The effect that Southgate, who hails from Watford, has had on England over the past couple of weeks has manifested itself in a bunch of rather-strange ways.
M&S, the official suit-suppliers for the England team, have reported that their waistcoat sales have increased by 55 per cent. Supporters have already made him a style icon of sorts, declaring plans to observe a “Waistcoat Wednesday".
Multiple online petitions have already been launched, calling for knighthood to bestowed on him — Sir Gareth Southgate doesn’t sound too bad!
The normally-vicious British media has been fawning over him. The Times had an article titled “Why Gareth Southgate makes me proud to be English”. The Guardian went with “Why the nation fell for Gareth Southgate”. Even NME, one of the world’s biggest music websites, got in on the act, with their take on the man titled as: “Why Gareth Southgate is an absolute snack”.
It is difficult to remember the last time an England coach received so much favourable press. Bobby Robson, who took them to the 1990 semifinals, was perhaps the last. So, where has all this come from?
Maybe it is that Southgate fits the ideal, romantic stereotype of the English gentleman: soft-spoken, articulate, and not full of himself. One suspects that if Sam Allardyce had taken England this far, few would have been scripting peans for him.
But, Southgate is different. During England’s penalty shootout against Colombia, as the substitutes and backroom staff pumped their fists after every successful conversion, Southgate stood quiet, fully aware that only the one at the very end mattered. When the match was done, he walked up to Mateus Uribe — whose missed penalty cost Colombia the game — and put an arm around him. And, we all thought that chivalry was dead!
Maybe it is that in the post-Brexit Britain of Boris Johnsons and Nigel Farages, a calm, cool and — most importantly — successful Southgate is the role model that people have sorely been missing.
Yet, another one of Southgate’s many effects on Three Lions will be visible on Wednesday, when Croatia take on England in the second semifinal at Luzhniki Stadium. After the group stages, Southgate had claimed that his primary objective of reconnecting with fans had been accomplished to some extent.
“Ten months ago, we qualified for the World Cup by beating Slovenia, and people were throwing paper aeroplanes onto the pitch at Wembley. We were driving back to our hotel after beating Malta, with some obscene chants being thrown at us from supporters,” Southgate had said ahead of their game against Colombia. “I feel like we’ve started to connect the team with the public again.”
Initially, it looked like he might have got it wrong. Fewer than 3,000 England fans turned up for the Colombia clash and their quarterfinal against Sweden.
But on Tuesday, reports suggested that a 10,000-strong contingent had landed in Moscow, blowing a fortune on last-minute flights, accommodation and tickets. One more win and a lot more English fans will descend on Luzhniki on June 15.