...Shoreditch, the Queen’s remarkable life will forever be remembered – as will her escapades as a goalkeeper
WEIRD WORLD OF FOOTBALL
1 A RIGHT ROYAL SEND-OFF
When American street artist Robert Vargas painted a bizarre mural of the Queen diving to save a penalty in Shoreditch, he probably didn’t expect it to serve as an unlikely tribute to her life weeks later.
Sure enough, though: not long after her Majesty passed, a snapper took a pic of the mural in London’s East End and it was published alongside solemn captions such as ‘The Nation Mourns The Death of Queen Elizabeth II’ – with no explanation as to why she’d been turned into Edwin van der Sar, or why Jurgen Klopp seems to be wandering past in sandals.
The mural was first painted to celebrate England winning Euro 2022 – a diary once revealed that when the royals gathered at Sandringham, ‘the whole family would play football, with the diminutive Queen acting as goalkeeper’.
Football found other ways to commemorate her, too: Ray Parlour videoed himself drinking a Cobra bomb (a pint of Cobra beer, mixed with a shot of Jagermeister) to show his respects. “I’m sure she didn’t drink Cobra bombs, but what a great lady she was,” he explained. A truly moving tribute.
2 “BE AFRAID, BE VERY AFRAID...”
If Liverpool’s recent visit to Italy was anything to go by, playing Napoli was already terrifying enough this season – now it’s got even scarier.
The Partenopei recently endured a kit setback – banned from wearing a top bearing Diego Maradona’s face, following a legal challenge from his family over image rights. Now they have a new weapon to strike fear into opponents, though – a special Halloween kit, covered in images of bats, modelled by Giovanni Simeone in his very scariest pose.
Somewhere, hard-man dad Diego is sighing, and wondering whether Gio learned such intimidating poses from his mother...
3 GUITAR HERO
Football culture is far more ingrained into the American psyche these days – even musicians are inspired by it (sort of).
Step forward Soccer Mommy, the up-and-coming Nashville singer who’s toured with Paramore and played for Bernie Sanders, having taken her name from a well-known moniker for overburdened American housewives, first popularised during the 1996 presidential election.
She’s even released some (possibly) football-inspired singles – including ‘Allison’ (perhaps a misspelt tribute to Liverpool’s keeper), ‘Henry’ (a song about that handball against Ireland, maybe) and ‘Circle The Drain’, the tale of Norwich’s Premier League years.
