Rick Edwards

So I was watching everyone have the party and I was kind of there like, this is fun, but I wish my mates were here.

And, um,

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.