I’ve always supported England but for me, I’d say it really kick-started when Michael Owen scored his goal against Argentina at the 1998 World Cup.
I was at my grandad’s house at the time and I just thought ‘that’s unbelievable!’ and would spend hours out on the field or in the garden trying to recreate it.
Initially, I wasn’t really into football growing up, but then my grandad took me to see Middlesbrough reserves so it came from there first and then I used to say to him all the time that I wanted to play for England.
I remember the goal and that game clearly, and that moment was when I realised that I loved football and when I managed to get into a team.
So now that I am playing for England, he says that it’s made him the proudest man alive and for me, it’s goosebumps stuff.
Inspiring the next generation of CP footballers is huge for Para Lions captain @Matts90, so we loved getting him on a call this week with the brilliant @bryanjunior2006! 😊 pic.twitter.com/cD9rO6Dy38
— England (@England) April 19, 2020
I get messages every week on Twitter from young lads with Cerebral Palsy who want to speak to me or do things like challenges with them. It’s those sort of things which make me really proud.
It’s great during tournaments when everyone gets behind England, with the flags out and everything and whenever we have a tournament coming, we always get people messaging us to say good luck.
I like that, especially knowing that when you play for England, you all feel part of it as one and it’s not just categorised for the men’s or women’s senior teams.
The hard work we put in at training behind closed doors to prepare for those games, no-one really sees, but when we go to the tournaments and you see what it means to the kids who come out to support teams there, it takes your breath away really.
I still remember where I was when I got my first call up - I was in a supermarket getting some groceries and I had a missed call from a withheld number and then a message to call straight back.
The squad were about to fly out to the Euros in Portugal in 2014 and they wanted me to come down to be part of a training camp. I didn’t believe it at first, until I got a follow-up call to check I could still make it.
But I don’t always think about the first moment I got called up, it’s more about the bits in games and that’s when I notice things and what I remember most.
My first goal came against Ireland, when I scored a chip from the edge of the box and that blew up a bit at the time and it’s when a lot of my friends started to take it seriously as a sport as they didn’t really know a lot about it before that.
So to score for England was a big thing and I’ve been fortunate enough to have a few more since then.
It’s just about raising awareness really. It’s a huge thing for us and we just want to get more of that on the disability stage.
It’s a great platform for players to get into if they have a disability and it’s great to watch across the different teams. It’s fascinating to watch the blind team for example.
The CP team is often seen as an elite level of disability football and because we train that hard, people sometimes think it’s easy and we don’t have an impairment.
But it’s hard for us to play with those impairments and it’s one of those things, the better you get the easier it becomes to play with an impairment.
And every one of those lads goes out there with massive pride in the shirt and wanting to do their best.
We'd like you to send us your stories of what the England football team means to YOU!
SEND US YOUR STORIES
