Gareth Southgate has been inducted into the Legends of Football Hall of Fame for restoring pride in the national team and has revealed his first single, album and England’s best singer
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Southgate relishing challenge of Qatar World Cup
Gareth Southgate admitted England are still “a step” away from joining the world’s elite as he set his sights on being a smash hit at the World Cup.
Southgate revealed the “huge” influence of music around the England set-up after being inducted into the Legends of Football Hall of Fame for restoring pride in the national team.
Three Lions boss Southgate sang along to Sweet Caroline last summer and is now looking for another anthem to carry the England team to Qatar later this year.
Southgate said: “It’s firstly a brilliant challenge for us. The team have got to a certain level and there is a lot more expectation and evidence that they can do well.
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“We’re focusing on the small details that can take us from a team that are really competitive to a team that can win.
“We know we’ve still got a step to take to beat the best of the rest consistently. You’re balancing that with [the fact that] we’re still 10 months away [from Qatar] and form and fitness can fluctuate a lot over that period.
“There are things we want to get right in March and in the summer which are important building blocks and we need to pace ourselves over the year to peak at the end of the season.”
“The team are improving, gaining more experience as a collective and individually. Form in the league is important and form in the big matches, even more important.
“[Big matches] are about performing under the most extreme pressure and intensity, and you learn more about the players in semi-cup and final matches with their club. Have people got the resilience to stand up in an England shirt and thrive on those big nights?”
The Legends of Football charity raises money for Nordoff Robbins Music Therapy and Southgate revealed his own passion for music despite admitting he never gets asked to do karaoke.
Southgate’s first single was Phil Collins’ You Can’t Hurry Love, first album was Tears For Fears’ Songs from the Big Chair as he says Tammy Abraham is the best singer in the camp, how Sweet Caroline lifted the whole team along with Ed Sheeran ’s impromptu gig at St George’s Park.
Southgate said: “I was in the dressing room and the team were out on the pitch warming up. We were only about 40,000 at Wembley for the Germany game but that was the first time I started to hear that (Sweet Caroline) in the stadium.
“It was powerful. I could tell that people were excited about the game and with the team. You don’t often hear the crowd from the dressing room but when they were playing that and people were singing along, you could feel this was going to be a good day.
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“Every team will have had moments in their journey where certain songs have resonated, certain songs have been popular when they’ve been on a winning run, and it brings groups of players together.
“A song that might have played might become a big moment in the years that you played that brought everybody together. It’s that emotive part of music bringing memories, happy memories to your mind, or some things that weren’t so good. And that’s the power of music.”
Southgate added on the Ed Sheehan gig: “We were blessed that we had a world star coming in to perform for us. He is a humble guy and he has the ability to sing different tracks to connect and appeal to the whole team. He had everybody in the palm of his hand.
“I haven’t heard loads of them (the players) sing but I remember Tammy with the Under 21s, was a very good singer, through the junior age groups. I’ve seen him sing and I haven’t seen anyone better, that’s for sure. He is very good.”
- Legends of Football will honour Gareth Southgate at a star-studded event on the 3 rd October 2022 at Grosvenor House, London. Packages start from £5,500 + VAT and can be purchased now by downloading a booking form here: https://lofootball.co.uk/LOF2022_Booking_form.pdf
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