Prince William will travel to Germany to support England in a crunch Euro 2024 clash next week, it has been announced.
The Prince of Wales, who is president of the FA, will be at the Frankfurt Arena on Thursday, June 20, the day before his 42nd birthday, to watch England play Denmark in their second Group C game. It is not known whether he will be joined by any of his children but is unlikely to be accompanied by his wife the Princess of Wales, who is recovering amid her cancer treatment.
It comes after the prince, who visited the squad to wish them good luck on Monday before they left for Germany, faced criticism in 2023 for not attending the England women's team's World Cup football final against Spain in Sydney. During his visit on Monday, England captain Harry Kane dropped a hint that William would be at some of England's Euros matches.
He said: "He loves it. I think he's going to try to get out for some games if possible if the schedule allows. He's a big football fan. His kids are obviously big fans as well, now. They'll remember their first, second tournament as I did when I was younger. He'll be in touch, especially with the manager and some of the players and making sure that we're doing a good job."
England kick off their Euro 2024 campaign on Sunday with a game against Serbia. Ahead of travelling to Germany for the tournament on Monday, William presented the players with their squad numbers and met with manager Gareth Southgate. During his visit, William also got the opportunity to give the players a pep talk and he shared his youngest son Prince Louis' words of wisdom that he hopes would spur them to victory.
He said: "Guys, while I was on the way here, I was thinking what shall I say. And I thought what can I offer as you are all an experienced team here with Gareth and I was thinking what could I say to help before you went away?
"And I was on the school run this morning with the children and I said 'what shall I say to the England team today'. The best bit of advice I got was to eat twice the amount you would normally eat. And I now have visions of all of you running around with massive tummies and getting stitches on the pitch. So I think take my youngest's advice with a pinch of salt!"
However, when asked about Louis' suggestion to eat twice as much food to prepare for the tournament, Kane jokingly said: "I don’t think our nutritionist will be happy with that advice."
During Euro 2020, William attended two games with Prince George and wife Kate at Wembley. These were the group stage clash against Germany and the final, where England heartbreakingly lost to Italy on penalties. However, last summer, he came under fire when he didn't travel to Australia to watch the Lionneses in their World Cup final aginst Spain, which they also lost.
Before the match, William apologised to the Lionesses for not being there in a video message, where he was joined by his daughter Princess Charlotte who was clutching a football. It is understood he made the decision not to go because the trip would involve flying across the world for a very short period of time.
Meanwhile, King Charles and former England captain David Beckham were heard discussing England's chances in the championship on Tuesday evening. Referring to squad's 1-0 loss to Iceland on Friday in their final warm-up friendly, Charles, attending the King's Foundation awards, asked: "What was all that at Wembley?" Beckham replied: "I don’t think we should read much into it."
Charles said: "It doesn’t really matter does it? It was a warming up sort of thing. You don’t want to expend it all in one go at the beginning." Reassuring the King, Beckham said "we’ll be ready, Gareth will be ready" to which Charles gave the former footballer a thumbs up.
Euro 2024 kicks off in Munich on Friday when the hosts Germany take on Scotland in the first match. England will play Serbia, Denmark and Slovenia in their group while Scotland also have to face Switzerland and Hungary.