There must be a field of academic
study out there that looks at how countries behave when it comes to their
national teams and the extent to which this is a reflection of their national
psyche — perhaps an obscure offshoot of the sports and culture discipline. It
always bemuses me, for instance, when American football or baseball teams are
crowned “world champions” when they win their national leagues. The fact that
non-American teams don’t participate in the league, or that American teams
regularly lose to other countries when they do compete against them internationally
is beside the point. They are world champions because this mirrors the US’
national sense of global exceptionalism.
اضافة اعلان
There is a lot to unpack when it
comes to England’s national psyche and their football over the years. On
the whole, there is a general tendency to exaggerate good performances and
individual merit wherever they exist, sometimes to the detriment of the team or
player in question. Even though the Premier League is the most popular and
competitive league in the world, English clubs have performed pretty modestly
in Europe since its inception, and even the best English players have failed to
make a significant impact in European leagues.
This includes superstar players
such as David Beckham, Michael Owen, Paul Gascoigne, Chris Waddle, and even the
beloved Gary Lineker. This isn’t to diminish from their footballing abilities
whatsoever, or to suggest that they’ve flopped in Europe, but rather to suggest
that they haven’t been able to meet the high and often unrealistic expectations
created and obsessively promulgated by English media back home. Look at poor Trent
Alexander Arnold of Liverpool. True, he is a phenomenal right-back but English
media have painted him as the best right-back in the world — a burden that has
probably negatively impacted his performance and growth.
This hype is also clearly on
display at Euro 2020, as it has been at previous international tournaments.
After only a few victories against some easy opponents and an ailing German
national team, English media have gone characteristically overboard, convincing the
English public into believing in the inevitability of victory. Perhaps an
academic in a field of study referred to earlier is monitoring a spike in the number
of times the “Football is Coming Home” song has been played since England’s victory
over Germany?
The belief in the inevitability
of victory is a very English phenomenon; persevering against insurmountable
odds and rallying around a flag — an island nation surrounded by adversaries —
fighting overseas behind enemy lines etc. However, it’s baseless, considering the
fact that England has never won the tournament.
Danish keeper Kasper Schmeichel
rightly and coyly answered a question regarding the “Football is Coming Home”
chants during a press conference before the England match: “has it ever been
home?” This is partially why defeat normally comes as such a surprise to English
fans. The pioneers of the game are no longer considered a serious contender in
most international tournaments, and this is a difficult pill to swallow.
It mirrors the difficulty the
country faces as it struggles to reconcile its place in the new world order — a
superpower that, well, isn’t as super as it once was. Defeat for the lads
overseas often paves the way for another narrative altogether: an admirable
sense of solidarity and finding solace and pride in the smallest of places, (think
Dunkirk).
The English media machine can
strongly shape these narratives, and in the case of football, its dominance and
near monopoly in the English-speaking football world prevent other narratives
from emerging. Good luck to England and their fans in the finals on Sunday
night but don’t be surprised by a defeat. Good luck to the rest of the world if
they win. We’ll never hear the end of it!
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