It’s coming home... that is, Dave the team cat
England stars returning to the UK after World Cup exit look to adopt pet that befriended them in hotel
‘We went to the same corner and he was there waiting for us. Wherever we go for food we feed Dave and he sits and chills with us’
FOOTBALL’S not coming home but Dave the cat is – after the players made good on a promise to adopt a stray that befriended the England squad.
Kyle Walker and John Stones had become particularly fond of the feline, which became an honorary mascot at the team’s Doha hotel HQ.
“I’d love to adopt him,” said Walker, the Manchester City defender, prior to England’s World Cup exit. Yesterday, after the team were sent packing in a devastating 2-1 quarter-final defeat to France, white and tabby Dave was also on the move.
“He’s going back to the team,” announced a woman outside the team hotel as Dave was put in a cat carrier to be taken to a vet. “It’s undecided who is having him but he is going back.”
The England team were touching down on home soil overnight, but it will be around four months before Dave is reunited with its friends at Manchester City. Quarantine rules mean it must have its jabs in preparation and then spend an extended period in isolation.
Stones and Walker have been repeatedly asked about their feline friend, which had been joining them at dinner time at their Al Wakrah hotel base in recent weeks. “Dave is fine,” Walker said recently. “He had a little scrap with another cat the other night. I think they are fighting over territory and the food. But he’s doing well.
“Hopefully I can stick to my promise that he will come home with us if we were to win the World Cup. Dave’s fine, thank you for asking.”
There were two strays in total, the other had been named Paul, but it appears he is not being adopted. Not everyone in the squad was said to be a fan of the pair. Bukayo Saka, in particular, was said to “jump” whenever he saw them. But Walker had said repeatedly he was willing to adopt Dave, and share custody with Stones.
Walker listed City teammates Stones, Kalvin Phillips, Phil Foden and Chelsea’s Raheem Sterling as among those to welcome the cats. But the rest of the squad were sceptical as Walker allowed Dave to join them at their restaurant table while they were eating.
Phillips explained they were named Dave and Paul because the names were typical of the three players’ Yorkshire background. “I think it was just the first name which sprung into Stonesy’s head,” he added.
Dave was more friendly than Paul, according to Phillips in his official England Football World Cup diary. “Me, Kyle and Stonesy usually sit in the same corner of the canteen,” he said.
“On the first night, a cat wandered up to us, so we chucked it a little bit of chicken and stuff like that. And then the next day, we went to the same corner and he was sat there waiting for us... Whenever we go for food, we feed Dave and he sits and chills with us.”
England’s nail-biting defeat on Saturday was the most-watched sporting event of the year, with a peak audience of 23 million on ITV. An average audience of 20.4m watched throughout as a missed Harry Kane penalty allowed France to clinch victory.
Overall numbers could yet climb, although it appears that the Queen’s funeral in Westminster Abbey remains the best watched. Viewing figures for the service were at 29.2 million, according to official audience data.
Those numbers were also fewer than the 31 million who watched the climax of England’s Euro 2020 final defeat against Italy.