England’s 58-year drought still unable to win a trophy

England, who have not won a title since the 1966 World Cup, failed for the second time in a row in the final of a Euro, this time against Spain (1-2) on Sunday.

As usual, their fans kept chanting that football was coming home. (“Football’s coming home”), but as always, fate decided otherwise. After the home defeat in the final against Italy in 2021, the English once again stumbled on the last step, Sunday July 14. The drought has lasted for fifty-eight years and a coronation at the 1966 World Cup.

Yet everything was done to make the party great. Oasis, Robbie Williams, the Beatles… Classics of English music were broadcast before the match in the speakers of the Olympic stadium in Berlin, for an ultimately classic result for the Three Lions. “England invented football, codified it, became world champions in 1966, but then humiliatingly forgot how to play the greatest game of all. England took their attention away from a ball they arrogantly thought they owned, allowing other nations to get their hands on it.”wrote journalist Henry Winter in his 2016 book Fifty years of suffering, the history of English football and why we still believe in it.

So that’s fifty-eight years without a single title, and “it really hurts”regrets Mike, an English supporter encountered in the corridors of the Olympiastadion after the final. “The fact that it happens twice in a row at the Euro is really tough. This year, we really believed in it because we had managed to reverse complicated situations during the tournament, but once again, it’s not going to our advantage.”he resigns himself.

Marc Guéhi’s header, miraculously pushed back on his line by Dani Olmo in the 90th minute^e minute, will probably haunt the minds of England fans as much as the missed penalties of Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka in 2021. Gareth Southgate, the England manager, had nevertheless assured the day before that this difficult home defeat – like the one in 1996 in the Euro semi-final, in which he took part as a player – had allowed him to learn lessons and have a new mentality as the decisive moments approach. “If we are not afraid of losing, it gives us more chances to win”he assured. Perhaps, therefore, his players were not afraid enough of losing on Sunday evening.

The coach had tried everything to instill in his group the desire to win. Before taking off for Germany, he had shown his players images of the 1966 World Cup, won by England. “When you have a dream, you have to have a clear picture of what you want to see at the end. I think that lights a little fire for some people.”he explained on Saturday.

Clear images of a Three Lions victory, few supporters can claim to remember them. “We’re talking about a time when not everyone had a television, when we would gather at someone’s house who had one to watch the final, when the images were in black and white. When I talk about it to my grandchildren, they don’t understand. Bobby Charlton, Bobby Moore, it’s too far away, it means nothing to them.”regrets Paul, a 63-year-old supporter, who was waiting “desperately” to be able to share a national team victory for the first time with his descendants.

The English have not come far since Gareth Southgate took over in 2016. They reached the semi-finals of the World Cup in Russia and the final of the last two Euros. “We tried to change the mindset, to be more honest with ourselves about the level of our selection. We had high expectations, but they did not match our level of performance. Today, the expectations are still there, but we are more consistent and present in the last four of competitions. And you need to play these big games to learn how to win them, explained the coach on Saturday. We have learned, but now we have to make it happen by winning a trophy to feel the respect of the football world again.”

Respect will have to wait a little longer, especially from Scotland, where the newspaper The National called before the match on the Spanish to win, to prevent the English from boasting “unending” to have finally won a title.