Gareth Southgate has reacted to claims that England could be fated to win Euro 2024 by insisting: “I’m not a believer in fairy tales, but I am a believer in dreams.”
The Three Lions face Spain in Berlin on Sunday 28 years on from Germany‘s victory in London at Euro ’96, a tournament forever remembered in England for Southgate’s decisive semifinal shoot-out penalty miss as a player.
This summer, England required a 95th-minute equaliser to force extra time before winning their round-of-16 tie against Slovakia before beating Switzerland on penalties in the quarterfinals.
Southgate and captain Harry Kane were asked at Saturday’s pre-match news conference whether the pair believed in fate, given they could now turn the tables and win in Germany. Kane said: “You can answer that one. You were about in ’96. I was only 3!”
Southgate replied: “I was around, very much around — probably one of the more popular Englishmen in Berlin, I would imagine.
“Look, I’m not a believer in fairy tales, but I am a believer in dreams, and we’ve had big dreams.
“We’ve felt the need and the importance of that, but then you have to make those things happen.
“And fate, the run that we’ve had, the late goals, the penalties, that doesn’t equate to it being our moment. We have to make it happen tomorrow. We have to perform at the level that we need to perform.
“Of course it would be a lovely story, but it’s in our hands, and our performance is the most important thing.”
Southgate, who has all 26 players available for Sunday’s final, has overseen a huge transformation in England’s fortunes since taking charge in 2016, guiding England to back-to-back Euros finals either side of a 2018 World Cup semifinal and a quarterfinal in Qatar.
But the 53-year-old admitted England must take that final step to be regarded as a European powerhouse again, having waited 58 years for a major men’s honour.
“Sometimes you have to go through difficult nights as a team,” Southgate said. “We tried to change the mindset from the start. We’ve tried to be more honest about where we were as a football nation.
“I’ve travelled to World Cups, European Championships watching as an observer and watched highlights reels before the matches that were on the big screen before the game, and we weren’t in any of them. Because they only show the finals and the big games. We needed to change that.
“We had high expectations, but they didn’t match where we were performance-wise. Now, the high expectations are still there but we have had consistent performances over certainly three of the last four tournaments and a quarterfinal as well in the fourth.
“In the end, you always have to be in the latter stages of the tournaments to be able to learn how to win those big games. We’re learning that; we’ve come through a lot of big nights now.
“A lot of records that we’ve broken. But we know in the end, we have to do this one, we have to get this trophy to really feel the respect of the rest of the football world, I guess.”
Kane has never won a trophy in his career despite a glittering array of individual accolades, including becoming the all-time leading scorer for Tottenham and for England. The 30-year-old scored 44 goals in 45 games across all competitions last season, but Bayern Munich missed out on the Bundesliga title for the first time in 12 years.
Asked if he would trade those personal milestones to win the Euros, Kane said: “Of course. It’s no secret that I haven’t won a team trophy. Every year that goes by, you’re more motivated and you’re more determined to change that, and tomorrow I have the opportunity to win one of the biggest trophies you could ever win and to make history with my nation, which I’m extremely proud to be English.
“So yes, no question. I’d swap everything in my career to have a special night by winning tomorrow. It is a lot of hard work from now until that moment, and I’m pretty determined to make tomorrow night special.”
