The Prince of Wales made a surprise visit to St George’s Park to wish the England female football team good luck ahead of the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
On Tuesday, 20 June, His Royal Highness arrived in Staffordshire and was welcomed by the FA’s Chief Executive Mark Bullingham, before being led to astonished players and staff of the team, who hadn’t been told in advance that the royal was paying a visit.
Prince William was heard telling the Lionesses to “go get them” as they prepare to travel Down Under for the tournament.
Kensington Palace also released a few pictures from the event across their social media accounts, one of which portrays the Prince playing foosball with team members Millie Bright, Mary Earls and Rachel Daly.
But the visit itself wasn’t the only surprise of the day. While posing for the family picture towards the end of the visit, the Prince of Wales pulled out the decoration of the OBE honour that he then bestowed upon manager Sarina Wiegman.
Prince William has been the President of England’s Football Association since 2006 and has been very involved in the association’s life ever since. He even involved them in several of his campaigns to de-stigmatise talks about mental health by using the comradely created within circles of football fans and supporters.
He also closely followed the 2022 female European Championships, which saw the Lionesses (the name given to England’s female team) be crowned champions, a title they will be defending in the upcoming competition.
The FIFA Women’s World Cup will take place between 20 July and 20 August, with matches being played in nine cities and ten locations spread across Australia (Adelaide’s Hindmarsh Stadium, Brisbane’s Lang Park, Melbourne’s Rectangular Stadium, Perth’s Rectangular Stadium and Sydney’s Stadium Australia and Football Stadium) and New Zealand (Auckland’s Eden Park, Dunedin’s Forsyth Barr Stadium, Hamilton’s Waikato Stadium, and Wellington’s Regional Stadium).
