‘Emotional connection’: Wonderwall becomes England’s World Cup anthem

(From left) Eberechi Eze, Harry Kane, Morgan Rogers and Ollie Watkins sing Wonderwall with fans after England’s victory over Democratic Republic of the Congo. Photograph: Phil Duncan/Every Second Media/Shutterstock View image in fullscreen (From left) Eberechi Eze, Harry Kane, Morgan Rogers and Ollie Watkins sing Wonderwall with fans after England’s victory over Democratic Republic of the Congo. Photograph: Phil Duncan/Every Second Media/Shutterstock ‘Emotional connection’: Wonderwall becomes England’s World Cup anthem Oasis tune has been sung from Texas to Massachusetts and soon in Mexico City – and the players have joined in too It has become England’s World Cup anthem more three decades after it was first released, being belted out by fans from Texas to Massachusetts. Wonderwall by Oasis will soon be heard in Mexico City too, where the Three Lions will face the tournament co-hosts Mexico on Sunday evening – or at 1am on Monday for fans singing along back home. “It’s almost a time-and-place moment for those guys out in the States following the team,” said Russell Osborne, who hosts the Three Lions podcast. “And the team are singing it back to them – it’s a reciprocal thing. They’re all enjoying it and loving it, coming together with that one song.” The three-way relationship between a travelling English support, the group of players they were cheering on and a three-decade-old hit by a Manchester band started with a DJ in Texas and a crucial win over a Croatian team that has stood between England’s men’s football team and glory before. The team’s captain, Harry Kane, has described the moment when fans started up as one of his favourite in an England shirt – and he has had a few good ones. Many fans may have been high up, away from the pitch, but the emotion on Kane’s face was beamed around the stadium on the jumbotron. Kane told the Lions’ Den podcast that what got him was the “emotional connection with the fans, we know how much it means to them”. Since that moment at the end of England’s opening game, Wonderwall has been adopted as their unofficial anthem. View image in fullscreen Fans sing Wonderwall at Atlanta Stadium on Wednesday. Photograph: Javier García/Shutterstock Osborne compared it to the final of the last European Championship, when England were beaten by Spain in Berlin. “I went to all the Euros games out there. Prematch, they played Robbie Williams’ Angels as the England song for everyone to come together in a communal way. [That] got everyone singing together in a way that Wonderwall has got people singing together now over in the States.” The author and broadcaster PJ Harrison, who has written the biography Gallagher: The Fall and Rise of Oasis, has said the song made such good terrace material because of the ambiguity of its lyrics and the simple and familiar melody. “What is a Wonderwall? I’m not really sure what it is but I can sing about it and it can be whatever I think it is,” he told BBC News. “If I think it’s Jude Belli