After England’s 3-0 World Cup victory over Senegal on Sunday night, Marcus Rashford took to Instagram to celebrate the win and his 50th England cap by posting an adorable photo in the stands with his leading lady. No, not Lucia Loi, his girlfriend of nine years, but Melanie Rashford: his mum.
In World Cups gone by, it was routine for the post-England match tabloids to be dominated by glossy pictures of the team’s wives and girlfriends celebrating with their partners, both in the stadium and in the nightclubs. It was a British delicacy — the mini-skirts and low-rise jeans, the messy nights out, the ones we all thought secretly hated each other. But watching the tournament this year, I can’t help but notice: where are all the WAGs?
Many of them are in Doha, and there has been the occasional discreet snap of them looking proudly on from the stands. But they have all kept a relatively low profile. At one point, Bukayo Saka’s girlfriend Tolami Benson even took to posting pictures with her boyfriend in a fully-concealed balaclava to prevent word about her relationship with the England midfielder getting out. Granted, I’m not the world’s biggest football fan (or tabloid reader), but I wouldn’t even be able to name any of the 2022 WAGs off the top of my head.
Compare this to the infamous chaos of the 2006 World Cup in Baden-Baden. The usually tranquil German spa town was thrust into the spotlight arguably as much by the antics of the WAGs as by the football. Drunk dancing on tables, sky-high hotel bills and even a drugs scandal were among the stories to emerge, leading to then manager Fabio Capello deciding to ban the WAGs four years later in South Africa.
Of course, the media scrutiny of the Noughties WAGs was undoubtedly toxic and detrimental to those involved, and is probably best left as a relic of the past. But I think there’s a part of all of us that secretly misses the drama and scandal that the original WAGs generated.
To be fair to them, they did give us a final, unforgettable goodbye with the “Wagatha Christie” trial of the century this summer involving Colleen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy. And what more fitting end to an iconic period of British history. For better or for worse (let’s be honest, it’s probably for better), they don’t make them like that anymore.
