England have officially landed in Qatar for this year's World Cup.
Gareth Southgate's side are aiming to win the competition for the first time since their triumph on home soil in 1966. The 26-player squad have made their way to the Souq Al Wakra Hotel - their base for the tournament - and will start acclimatising to the warm weather ahead of their tournament opener against Iran in Doha on Monday.
England were scheduled to leave Birmingham Airport - located near their base at St George's Park in Burton on Trent - at 10am on Tuesday. The flight didn't depart until 10:41am and arrived in Qatar at 7:57pm local time (4:57pm UK time) - meaning the trip lasted six hours and 16 minutes.
The Three Lions arrived at their hotel later on Tuesday evening to much fanfare, with dozens of fans waiting outside of the building to greet them. Southgate appreciated the reception his staff and players received by waving to the adoring supporters.
England are among the favourites to win the World Cup after reaching the final of Euro 2020 just 16 months ago, where they lost on penalties to Italy at Wembley. Yet they're in dismal form, failing to win any of their last six fixtures and losing 4-0 at home to Hungary.
Southgate and his players were given the royal seal of approval before the flight. Prince William, who is President of the FA, visited the squad before their journey. He told them they had "built something special" under Southgate and gave them a good luck speech.
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The England players were also given a special presentation box with their shirt and squad number inside with a message from Southgate which read: "Wear your shirt with pride and embrace the opportunity to make history."
Prince William told the players at a squad meeting on Monday night: "What you and Gareth have built here is something special, that’s clear to see. Play for each other, support each other, enjoy it, and I’m sure you’ll go far."
The players discovered their numbers at the meeting on Monday night, starting with Harry Kane who will wear the No9 shirt. Kane got the shirt in a bespoke box which also included the history of the shirt and a picture of every England player who had worn it at a previous World Cup.
Kane will join an illustrious band of six players to have captained England at more than one men’s World Cup, following in the footsteps of Billy Wright, Bobby Moore, Bryan Robson, David Beckham and Steven Gerrard have all previously had the honour of being skipper at least twice.
It is a squad of 26 at a World Cup for the first time rather than the traditional 23 and every player was called up in turn to receive their special shirt presentation.
Southgate stressed the unique nature of the extra three shirts to No26 Conor Gallagher, No24 Callum Wilson and No25 James Maddison who are all representing England at a World Cup for the first time.
The players were treated to an impromptu gig by pop star Ed Sheeran during last year’s Euros and the royal visit was seen as another special occasion before England left for Qatar on Tuesday morning.
Southgate said: "It was a nice moment to be with the group and Prince William, who has been a huge supporter of ours. I know how passionate the players are about their country and it was great to see what it meant to each of them as they came forward.
"As staff and players, we are all so privileged to represent England and we are excited to see what’s possible together. We want to make the fans proud again."
Skipper Kane believes England can win the World Cup. Speaking to Sky Sports, the Tottenham striker said: "We have to believe we can win it. I look back at England 10, 15 years ago and it was almost [like] we were scared to say we wanted to win it.
"I think one of the big shifts that we've made over the last four or five years with Gareth is not being afraid to say that. Look, we're going to this tournament to win it because we believe we can. It'd be wrong to think otherwise.
"What's the point of going to a World Cup and not believing that you can bring the trophy home? It's going to be tough and we're going to have to work extremely hard, have a little bit of luck and have a lot of things go our way to achieve that."
Defender Kieran Trippier is also confident. "We shouldn’t be afraid going into the tournament saying we can win it," said the Newcastle hero, as quoted by the Daily Mail. We set high standards by getting to a semi-final of a World Cup and a final of a Euros.
"Obviously we want to go one step further to actually win a tournament. We all feel confident as a group, we’ve got a fantastic 26 man squad - unbelievable talent in there.
"Mixture of experience and youth. We shouldn’t be going into a tournament saying we should be scared of saying we want to win it. That shouldn’t be the case, we should go there with that winning mindset."
