In the early hours of Monday morning, like millions of other football fans, the Prince of Wales stayed up in Windsor to watch England’s memorable victory over Mexico.
At Forest Lodge, his family home on the Windsor estate, he endured the delayed start, the intense atmosphere of the Azteca Stadium and the nerve-jangling end to the second half when a 10-man England agonisingly clung on to their lead.
He’d watched every other England match too as you’d expect from the Patron of the Football Association. He knows the England set-up well and has been in direct contact with players and staff during the tournament – several England footballers have Prince William’s personal phone number.
If England make it to the World Cup final in New Jersey on 19 July, Prince William will fly over as an official representative of the FA and the royal family’s most ardent football fan.
No royal has ever shown their love for football quite like Prince William.
And his passion for the game has often been at its most raw on the royal family’s social media platforms.
Royal posts can be tame affairs. The usual pattern is a reminder of the day’s engagements, a clip of a speech delivered, sometimes an official comment around an event alongside the day’s best pictures.
But on 20 May this year, Prince William’s official accounts loosened up just a bit.
“UTV! VTID” they screamed alongside a red love heart and the muscular arm emoji. For those not in the know, that translates as “Up the Villa” and “Villa Till I Die.” Not your typical royal social post.
They were published with a “W” meaning they had come personally from William and were up just minutes after his beloved Aston Villa had won the Europa League final with a convincing 3-0 victory over German side, Freiburg. It was Aston Villa’s first European title in 44 years – they won the European Cup in 1982, the year Prince William was born.
He’d been at this year’s final in Istanbul with a group of close friends, many from his childhood who share his love for Aston Villa – Ben Dawes, Thomas van Straubenzee and Edward van Cutsem. They have all been regulars at Villa games over the years. It was a family friend who persuaded him to support Aston Villa when he was a teenager.