DISCOVER St George’s Park
As the Women’s World Cup kicks off, take a walk round the rural hideaway where a quiet revolution has transformed the fortunes of Lions and Lionesses alike…
ON JULY 31 last year, at 7.30pm, I was standing on the summit of Ben Nevis when suddenly there was a lot of noise. There was no more than a handful of souls sharing this glorious golden hour on the gable of Great Britain, but the noise was still significant.
It started with the dings and beeps of news alerts from those with phone signal. Then there was human noise. Restrained but still audible, and loud enough that it was possible to hazard a guess at the nationalities of most of those assembled.
“Yesssssssss!/Whoop!/Come on!” said the Sassenachs.
“Aw, feck it,” said those of a more local persuasion. England, our phones had informed us, had just won the Euros. Leah Williamson and her Lionesses, coached by the steely Sarina Wiegman, had triumphed 2-1 over Germany at Wembley, some 500 miles south of where we stood.
As an Englishman, I felt a bit unpatriotic, having chosen to climb a mountain – in Scotland – rather than watch this moment of history unfold. But this was a beautiful evening, and my only window of opportunity for the week. Ben Nevis or telly? I think, dear reader, you’ll probably forgive me.
But while this magazine has no national allegiance other than to the British Isles themselves, even the most fervent supporter of Alba, Cymru or Northern Ireland (and those who loathe football altogether) might have to concede that the Lionesses did something remarkable that evening. Today, as they line up for the World Cup, hopes are high that there may be more to come.
And if they should roar once again, part of that success may be down to a quiet corner of Staffordshire countryside, a long way from mountains of any kind.
We might generally think of the home of English football being Wembley. But since 2012, the true headquarters and training hub of the Football Association – and all its England teams – has been a sensational complex hidden in the folded farmland of Needwood Forest, a few miles west of Burton upon Trent. It’s called the National Football Centre; better known as St George’s Park.
