Gareth Southgate and his team are just hours away from England’s first major final since 1966.
Their historic clash against Italy follows ugly scenes at Wednesday’s semi-final, when fans booed opponents Denmark during their national anthem and one pointed a laser at Kasper Schmeichel’s face – leading to charges by UEFA.
Still, nothing seems able to dampen English spirits ahead of Sunday’s game, with supporters increasingly convinced that football could, this time, really be coming home.
That said, one US commentator has certainly managed to upset and enrage readers on the other side of the pond, with a deeply scathing article about what victory for the Three Lions would mean for the country’s “tortured psychology”.
The piece, titled ‘The National Psychodrama of England’s Euro 2020’ and published in New York Magazine’s ‘Intelligencer’, begins by describing “this summer of soccer” as dominated by England’s “monomaniacal levels of self-involvement.”
The author then suggests that whilst a win for Italy would be a “perfectly good story about a proud footballing nation fallen on hard times,” and victory for Denmark “would have been even better,” he’s “not sure I can bring myself to even speculate about what might happen” if England succeeds.
“The English themselves seem utterly confused about what a victory for this particular team would mean,” he continues.
“The national team has long borne the weight of England’s collective fears and anxieties. That the team has not won a major international tournament since the World Cup in 1966 — a hallowed historical moment — has been taken as a metaphor for a once-mighty empire’s sad decline on the global stage.”
He goes on to suggest that the country’s favourite chant of “it’s coming home” – taken from the song ‘Three Lions’ of course – is driven by the idea that “if England wins, soccer and all its attendant glories will have returned, at long last, to their proper place.”
He then names Jack Grealish as the squad’s indisputable “fan favourite”, branding him “a b-list version of David Beckham with floppy hair, a goofy grin, and thighs the size of Iberico hams,” and suggesting his popularity is largely driven by racist ideals.
“As it happens, the team’s actual best player in this tournament, Raheem Sterling, was born in Jamaica,” he adds.
The piece continues by calling out the “gall of Conservative politicians” for publicly celebrating the team they previously condemned for taking the knee before matches.
The writer ends by pointing to “the inevitable bedlam that will follow an England victory on Sunday.”
“What story will England tell?” he asks. “Will it be about a triumph of multiracialism and tolerance over bigotry and small-mindedness? Or a more chauvinistic notion of England made great again?
“The likely answer, unsatisfactory for all sides in England’s endless season of soul-searching, is that it will be both.”
The article has proven fiercely divisive on Twitter, with some users hailing it as an “outstanding piece,” and others condemning it as “absolute tosh”.
Here’s a look at some of the praise it has received:
Wasn’t expecting to, but I agree with most of this. English exceptionalism is something most English people have in common & it obvs has roots in the past/empire.
— Alistair Brown (@alistairjbrown) July 9, 2021
Implying fans are racist for wanting Grealish is bad faith tho. https://t.co/qHG10K01E9
Lots of English journalists getting mad about this, yelling "Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!", which is telling in and of itself. I don't actually see a lot wrong with the piece's thesishttps://t.co/tHlF7Goeu6
— Chris Applegate (@chrisapplegate) July 9, 2021
Yes, he misunderstands the song. Yes, there's that US cliché about imperial decline. But most of this article is not as bad as English twitter is pretending. Maybe it touched a nerve! https://t.co/vEpTqCLfDy
— Marcus Walker (@MMQWalker) July 9, 2021
You know this article is good because it's wound up all the worst people https://t.co/jvAqLfVFwW pic.twitter.com/Dwj2fASsNd
— Labour Accelerationists (@LabourAccel) July 9, 2021
this is basically fine and significantly less bad than most british takes on, say, the US election https://t.co/fl3G279gbj
— Luke Bailey (@imbadatlife) July 9, 2021
Lovely article - just for the fume that it’s caused. https://t.co/JIWNEGSQ06
— J Heywood (@JHeywood89) July 9, 2021
And here’s what critics have had to say:
US publications, from time to time, publish some genuinely fascinating and revelatory pieces about the UK and sometimes even about its culture.
— James Ball (@jamesrbuk) July 9, 2021
This…is not one of those pieces. https://t.co/yHUTsqhwVF
This is obviously written by someone who doesn't know football and obviously hates the England supporters. I would say sort out your own social, racial and economic divisions in your own back yard before writing what is , quite frankly, utter trash on the English https://t.co/Lu3x8Df2g4
— Fred Taylor (@FredFtaylor9) July 9, 2021
Why didn’t you ask the writer what the song is about instead of just making up what you think it’s about? https://t.co/q10H7L7J5n
— Mike Hewitson (@mikehewitson) July 8, 2021
If I can make my own, niche contribution to the debate over this article, it very much feels to me like the sort of piece you get when a journalist uses Twitter as pretty much their only research tool. https://t.co/AJ0puVLWzo
— Peter Walker (@peterwalker99) July 9, 2021
Are you enjoying the Euros? Well apparently you’re just enjoying an attempt to rectify Britain’s post-Suez decline … https://t.co/c5f3WMolCd
— Jamie Smith (@jamiesmith2610) July 9, 2021
In my five years of writing about America, I hope I was never this patronising or uncharitable. https://t.co/hPoP7jKMv5
— Josh Glancy (@joshglancy) July 8, 2021
Genuinely one of the worst analyses I have read, that could have been instantly dispelled by speaking to some ordinary people instead of looking for fringe political comments on Twitter. There is no confusion. England loves football. It really isn’t any deeper than that. https://t.co/MbUoOqAeye
— Alex Hardy (@alexhardy1987) July 9, 2021
Always informative when a liberal American explains to the world what it truly means to be English https://t.co/2YLnxIoPps
— Jake Wallis Simons (@JakeWSimons) July 9, 2021
This is a needlessly churlish piece that completely misunderstands almost every aspect of what it seeks to discuss. The idea that your average football fan would see the England team winning as a chance return the country to its pre-Suez global standing is, err, ‘interesting’. https://t.co/gNKN19SOiT
— Chris Kirby (@ccakirby) July 9, 2021
Do American publications commission these essays on the UK as a posh form of clickbait? As in, the genre is not actually intended for a domestic audience, it just harvests the sweet sweet hate-clicks from outraged Brits? (Cc @NYMag)
— Robert Colvile (@rcolvile) July 9, 2021
Americans should never ever, and emphasis on the ever, be allowed to watch football https://t.co/wxwjLCj92h
— fanta (@fanta_orangeluv) July 9, 2021
Is it a requirement in the US that anyone who writes opinion pieces about the UK should never have been here https://t.co/68gW4JM08x
— will (@WillumG) July 9, 2021
In response to the NY Mag analysis of the meaning of Three Lions, 800 words from a Brit on how Born In The USA is an uncomplicated power ballad about how great it is to be an American, on my desk by 2pm, thanks
— Jess Brammar (@jessbrammar) July 9, 2021
Indy100 has contacted Intelligencer for comment.
