The World Cup, the actual World Cup, is less than a week away and you’d be excused for not noticing. Only the gap in the Premier League schedule next weekend offers a clue that something is afoot. Think of it as a sort of elongated international break. Given how clubs often use standard international breaks as an opportunity to swap managers, there must be an unusually high number of touchline water bottle swiggers nervously checking their phones right now.
Normally Patgod adopts the brace position when considering England’s tournament prospects, but this time (more than any other time) is different. As our boys board the plane to Qatar, for the first time ever a former Poppy is in the squad. Take a bow Callum Wilson. It’s been a long journey since his loan spell for the slender lad from Coventry, so long that he probably still thinks we play at Rockingham Road. Actually, if he asks, say we do. From Cov to rising to the Prem with Bournemouth then a big move to Newcastle, he’s timed his run perfectly into the World Cup reckoning and from here anything is possible.
Callum may be an ex Poppy, but what about other World Cup connections. Surely the legendary Tommy Lawton played in a World Cup? The answer, surprisingly, is no. He wasn’t selected for 1950 or 1954, before his career wind down brought him to our patch. Gazza you cry. But if the qualifying test is wearing a Kettering shirt, he never actually made an appearance. Ok then, what about Dave Watson. Mid 80s defensive warhorse alongside the likes of Dave Needham, who not many years earlier was earning the last of 65 caps? Cruelly for him, he actually sang on the 1982 World Cup song, only to not make the cut. Must have been tough, but he’ll always have that appearance on Top of the Pops.
The only other (playing) World Cup connection we can identify is Don Masson from Scotland’s ‘78 squad. Archie Gemmill emerged from that tournament as a hero thanks to an immortal goal; Don missed a penalty against Peru and was never picked again. Several years later he briefly passed through RR as player manager and was sacked after a handful of games, which was some achievement at a time when club chairmen were much less trigger happy than today, and even complete bozos normally got half a season.
So it looks like Callum is in a class of one, at least as far as England is concerned. Needless to say, having a CURRENT Poppy at the World Cup, for any country, has never happened. However, at the present rate of expansion of the finals, who knows. After all, by 2050 every country in the world bar the Cook Islands, and Scotland, will be there.
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