Rick Edwards

throughout the years i remember where i was when we got knocked out by portugal when ronaldo ronaldo did us and i remember i was where i was in 2010 getting like super invested in things but going to the 2018 world cup that was the first time i genuinely felt like i could see myself or part of myself in this team not that there were any south asian footballers in the makeup of it but i felt like

Culturally, there were people in that team that understood what it was like to feel how I did about that relationship with English football.

And maybe just people who you looked at and thought, if I were in a situation where I was having a chat to them in a pub or a social situation, we'd probably have quite a nice time.

Absolutely.

And it would be relatively easy.

Absolutely.

Because a lot of players in the past, you sort of think, I don't know what I'm saying to these guys.

Yeah, yeah.

going to be awkward and then it was actually after that tournament that literally sparked it where then I was sitting there and when we were filling out the form it was like tell us something interesting about and it's like from that moment there from that semi-final I've been to every single climactic game that we've ended up going out so maybe I should stop doing that but

Like, you know, I, I, yeah, I think so.

Uh, but out of those four games, like the, the Euro finals, uh, the game in Qatar, like I I've been at all of them and that was, and only one of them was for work.

So the other three, I'd, I'd, I'd paid my own money.

I'd found a ticket.

I'd gone out there.

And that was from that one moment of, of seeing myself or people like me in that team.

Um, yeah.

And now, yeah, now I feel a little bit more, I feel a little bit more at home.

I'm happy to wear an England top without sort of traumatic conflictions.

Yeah, sure.

Do you think that this tournament's legacy, the legacy of that team and what Gareth Southgate built has kind of lived on so long?