Читать книгу Welcome to My World - Coleen McLoughlin - Страница 10

Me and Wayne have this ritual. He always calls me when he’s on the coach on the way to the game. I just say good luck and what have you, and that’s it. I know before the World Cup there was all this talk about whether he’d be fit enough to play, but Wayne was desperate to make it to Germany and there was never any doubt in his mind that he would go. He just loves playing football. Even in our hotel in Baden-Baden, Wayne would come over for a few hours and he’d be playing football in the room and the corridors with my brother Anthony. They’d both be kicking a ball about, and I’d be saying, ‘Come on lads, don’t you ever stop!’ Luckily they didn’t break anything. They were like big kids. So you can imagine what he felt like, what we all felt like, when he was sent off in the Portugal match.

With me in the stand that day was Claire, my best friend and Wayne’s cousin, my dad, my granddad and my younger brother Anthony sitting together, then my other brother, Joe, with my cousin sat further down with Wayne’s mum and dad, his brother John and Wayne’s Uncle Eugene. To be honest, I never saw what actually happened. I’d seen Wayne go over and confront someone and when he does that I get nervous. I watch other people on the football pitch having a go at each other and, much like everyone else, I think it’s good entertainment, but when Wayne’s doing it I hate it. I was saying to myself, ‘Oh, Wayne, pack it in. Don’t.’ Then the referee calls him over, and I saw him reaching inside his pocket and I thought, ‘Oh, he’s getting a yellow card.’ But then when a red got pulled out the whole stadium just went silent. The place was packed with England fans. All silent. Then the odd one started shouting, then more, until everyone, the whole ground, seemed to be full of England fans booing and having a go at the referee. And I just sat there not knowing what to do.

I could feel everyone looking at me. My dad enjoys a match but he’s not the type to get worked up over football, but I heard him screaming, ‘Heeey!’ Everyone was jeering Ronaldo. Even then I still didn’t know what had gone on, so I couldn’t say anything.