Few acronyms carry the cultural significance of WAG. In the last two decades, its meaning has transcended far beyond what it actually stands for – wives and girlfriends, in case you didn’t know. Depending on who you ask, the term itself could have many signifiers, from oversized sunglasses and shopping addictions to mild alcoholism and some of the most brazen misogyny pop culture has ever witnessed.
A quick recap for those unfamiliar with the WAG era that transformed the way we talk about the female partners of male athletes: it started 20 years ago in the spa town of Baden-Baden, Germany, where 2006’s World Cup was being held. Thanks to its quiet and low-key atmosphere, it was here that the friends and family of the England team were encouraged to stay for the duration of the tournament.
Nobody could have anticipated the media maelstrom that followed. The key characters were, of course, David and Victoria Beckham, whose fame was at its apex thanks to the success of the Spice Girls, and Cheryl Tweedy (who was dating Ashley Cole), a member of one of the other most successful pop groups of the time, Girls Aloud.
Then there were the models: Abbey Clancy (Peter Crouch), Alex Curran (Steven Gerrard), Carly Zucker (Joe Cole) and Elen Rivas (Frank Lampard). The group was completed by Coleen McLoughlin (Wayne Rooney), Melanie Slade (Theo Walcott), and, of course, Nancy Dell’Olio, who some have said was the “queen mother of the WAGs”, but was, more formally, the partner of the then England manager, Sven-Goran Eriksson.
These women did everything loudly: shopping, partying, and drinking; at least, that was according to the narrative peddled by the tabloids, who were hell-bent on probing every angle of these women’s lives, to the point where coverage around the WAGs exceeded that around the tournament itself. Indeed, on their return to the UK, the WAGs were showered with lucrative book deals and brand collaborations.
A lot has changed since 2006. Social media has taken away the power of the paparazzi, and it’s no longer acceptable to scrutinise female behaviour and objectify women’s bodies in the same way. Plus, the trends have shifted hugely, with the rise of “quiet luxury” putting an end to the idea that having money means dressing in head-to-toe designer logos. If anything, doing so today would only serve to cheapen your look rather than elevate it.
On top of all this, there’s the astronomical rise of the Lionesses, with the likes of Beth Mead and Leah Williamson among those earning their column inches for their own sporting prowess and setting the precedent for women’s football finally being taken seriously. The culture has changed for the better in almost every way.
But members of today’s male England team still have female partners. And fascination with them has hardly abated. So, as the World Cup approaches, with games taking place in the US, Mexico, and Canada, who can we expect to dominate the WAG headlines?
Well, for starters, they’re not likely to be called WAGs at all. The wives and girlfriends of this year’s England team tend to skew more on the low-key side of things, not least because many of them have fairly intense jobs themselves. Consider Naima Corbin, a nurse who is married to Arsenal midfielder Eberechi Eze and works in intensive care. There is also Mia-Florence McClenaghan (dating Reece James), who recently graduated from Royal Holloway with a law degree, and Olivia Kate Parvia (dating Elliot Anderson), a paralegal.
Then there’s Katie Goodland, the childhood sweetheart of Harry Kane and mother to their four children – she’s a sports science graduate and former fitness instructor and was at Kane’s side long before he entered the sporting limelight. And Rebecca Burnett, who is married to Jordan Henderson and seems to have no public social media at all.
With this in mind, it feels as if today’s anti-WAGs are more likely to be showing up to support their partners in discrete garb that’s a far cry from the Louis Vuitton logo-mania looks that came to define the OG WAGs back in 2006.
Still, that’s not to say there haven’t been some major fashion moments. Corbin and Eze’s wedding last year was covered by Vogue, for example, and the bride wore Vivienne Westwood. While Tolami Benson, the 25-year-old fiancee of Arsenal star Bukayo Saka, works as a planning executive at one of the UK’s biggest advertising agencies, and went viral at the 2024 Euros for her stylish ensembles – an England kit reworked as corsetry and a bespoke moto jacket featuring Saka’s first Arsenal squad number.
British Vogue interviewed Benson for its June issue, noting how she was credited with “reviving WAG fever”. “I was just a bit like, ‘Why does everyone care so much?’” she told the publication. As for what fans can expect from her outfits this time around, Benson revealed she was keen to spotlight independent designers, specifically those from Nigeria. Conspicuous consumption, though, is not her modus operandi: “At the game, I want to be with the crowd – I want to jump and be free,” she told Vogue. “It’s about high-low: for example, I’ll pair my Louis Vuitton trainers with an Arsenal jersey and Zara shorts.”
The term WAG may be somewhat redundant, or even offensive, in the modern era, but one thing is certain: the interest in the wives and girlfriends of England’s football players has not subsided. And as the games kick off, there will be those who are far more interested in what’s happening off the pitch than on it, hoping for another Baden-Baden moment – if only to give them something to talk about besides football.
