Gareth's life lesson

So, football’s not coming home after all.  When the football World Cup commenced a few weeks ago there seemed to be an unusually low expectation of the England team’s prospects.  But then we dared to dream, as the team surprised many by reaching the semi-final for the first time in 28 years.  Could this be the year when English football finally lays the ghost of our one and only World Cup victory back in 1966?  Sadly, it was not to be.  Yet the performances of the young and inexperienced team have been worthy of praise.

Even many who not normally count themselves as football supporters have been drawn into the excitement.  In yesterday’s Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons, for example, Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry (standing in for Jeremy Corbyn), challenged Cabinet Office minister David Lidington (standing in for Theresa May), by commenting that although she knew relatively little about football, even she could see what happens ‘when people work together, when there is a clear game plan and when people respect the manager.’ What lessons, she asked, could this team teach the government?

A good question, of course, though the sad reality is that over the course of this parliament it has not only been the government which has been troubled by division and infighting but the opposition benches as well.  It could be said that at a crucial time in our nation’s history we would be much better served if both government and opposition were able to present a more unified stance.  The point has been made that although the current England squad probably do not have as gifted individual players as previous squads have had, they have done so well because they have operated as an effective team.  Teamwork is so important in all walks of life, including in the life of the Church.

Much of the credit has to go, of course, to manager Gareth Southgate.  The way he has conducted himself in a calm, considered and humble manner has endeared him to the nation.  Indeed, there have been suggestions that he might make a better Prime Minister than either Mrs May or My Corbyn!  In his younger days, Southgate was an England international himself.  As far as his international playing career is concerned, he will probably be mainly remembered for missing a crucial penalty in the penalty shoot-out at the end of the Euro 96 semi-final match against Germany, which led to England being eliminated from the competition.

Even though he was plucky enough to later appear in a Pizza Hut advert relating to the incident, Southgate has freely admitted that the memory of that penalty miss has haunted him for years.  I was impressed to read that when asked what lessons he has learned from the awful moment in his football career, Gareth Southgate replied, “I've learnt a million things from the day [missed penalty] and the years that have followed it. The biggest thing being that when something goes wrong in your life, it doesn't finish you."  What an important life lesson, and one which fits so well with the Christian gospel of hope, restoration and redemption.  The Bible is full of people who failed or messed up in big ways, but who subsequently received God’s grace and forgiveness and the opportunity to start again.  

Well done, boys, the nation is proud of you!  Next time, maybe?