Stomach this: An England fan has Cup on his belly
LEEDS: When England captain Harry Kane scored his second penalty against Panama in their group stage clash on Sunday, super fan Jamie Richardson was left in no doubt that manager Gareth Southgate’s side were heading for World Cup glory.
“It got to 5-0 up and it just hit me — an epiphany: ‘England are going to the win the World Cup this year. You get the tattoo and they will bring it home.’ And that’s exactly what I did,” Richardson said at his local pub in Kippax, near Leeds.
The tattoo — on his belly — is of the World Cup trophy with ‘England 2018 World Cup winners’ written across it. England fans know all about misplaced optimism.
Their one World Cup win in 1966 has been followed by decades of disappointment. Still, England beat Panama 6-1 and face Columbia on Tuesday for a place in the last eight. ‘
“We’ll see who’s stupid won’t we come two weeks ... When we get to the final everybody around here can build a little shrine around me. You can come and touch the tattoo or come and say a prayer to it,” he told the BBC. “The premonition — they’ll say: ‘He told us it’d happen. He went and got it done. They won.’ So if you need lottery numbers or you want to know who’s winning the raffle next week, come and see me and I’ll sort you out.”
BELGIUM TARGET 16 GOALS TO GET FREE TVS
MOSCOW: Belgium scored nine goals in their three World Cup group games, more than any other country, and forward Dries Mertens said on Saturday he was motivated by more than just winning the trophy.
Mertens joked that friends back home were counting on him to help the team hit a target of 16 goals. The Napoli player noted that a Belgian electrical chain was offering to reimburse people who bought a TV for the World Cup — if the team score more than 15. “My friends bought the television. So I’m thinking about that. So I want to score a lot of goals to give a free television to my friends,” he declared.