Heroes? I don’t think so.

Jeez....Let it go.

Sir Gareth? no way .If he gets one then why not Sir David
and Sir Gary.
Invent a treatment to save lives .Yes
Entertainment NO

Im in no way a football fan but if you asked my 7 yr old GS who his hero is I'm pretty sure he would name someone in the England team or their manager!

Gillybob agree 100%.... loved and watched and cheered on every England game, so deflated the night they lost however next day so proud of them and Gareth Southgate all hero’s in my eyes. Lovely to have something to bring us all together after all the misery our country has suffered over the last year. Yes we may not have won the World Cup but they won the hearts of our nation.

Let's see just how the honours system works, if those REAL heros, the cave rescue team, get recognised

this world cup has lifted the spirits for many in the UK , okay before I get my head bit off, England

Gillybob; I've got my King Solomon's robes on and having had a "Eureka" moment, (as distinct from my usual Senior's), I've reached a solution for all the verbal problems arising from this thread.!
There must be a couple or so of talented players with Glasgow Rangers,Celtic, even Partick Thistle,Swansea, Cardiff etc.!
Combine into one "team"; "United we stand, divided we fall"
Call it "Britannia", (even Great, if you like), you couldn't lose and also enable everybody to concentrate on a common enemy instead of squabbling.
Or maybe "squabbling" is really part and parcel of the game's enjoyment?
Or maybe there's a Clause in some Constitution somewhere that prevents such an amalgamation.
I'm too far away to know, so I'll shut up ,abdicate and concentrate on cheering the Poms tomorrow!
Good Luck
OoRoo

Yes, they're not proper heroes in the real sense of the word, just the usual British heroic failures.

lovebeigecardigans-spot on!

Just glad it's almost over and done with.

Okay, maybe the wrong word...........but they did us proud, especially as a young team going out there. Well done, I say.

i am not a football fan but the team did well they are not Heros it's a mis use of the word like celebrity is mis used in a lot of cases to my mind a celebrity is someone who is known to most people but now people who appear on things like love island etc I for one couldn't name one .

"a person who is admired for their courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities"

I think they are, thy were modest and unassuming, put us back on the map and gave their all, as a new team, to bring us a little bit of glory. I think the real test is that the made me fell proud and happy.

totally agree Katek. The salaries are also a disgrace.

I know very little about football and was interested to hear that the England team donate World Cup fees to charity.
I don’t really understand why people from Scotland, Wales and N Ireland are reluctant to support England (but I’m sure somebody will enlighten me!) - I’d support any home team against a non-home team, as I do in rugby. It gets more complicated when home teams play each other as I was born in NI, live in Scotland and am married to an Englishman!

I wouldn't call footballers 'courageous' 'noble' or 'outstanding' and certainly not worthy of a knighthood for heavens sake. It's a bag of wind after all!
NOW those cavers are ALL of those 3 qualities - they put their life on the line for people they didn't know and they themselves didn't know whether they would survive - and sadly one of them didn't. They are REAL heroes who did their job and quietly left.

I think there is far too much journalistic hype around the subject of football - even given that this is the World Cup and even I watched several of the matches - not being a football fan at all. It is wonderful to see the skill they demonstrate as well as some of the cheating! How sensible, modest, steady and humble has Gareth Southgate been in looking after his team and keeping them grounded. The crazy excitement generated amongst the fans surely must have raised the tension in these young men? It must create an unreal pressure- how on earth can this pressure be minimised? Otherwise I fear we will never win again.

From dictionary.com
personwho,intheopinionofothers,hasspecial achievements, abilities, or personalqualitiesandis regardedas arolemodelorideal

Coming 3rd or 4th out of 200+ countries in the world (yes I do believe almost every country plays football, though we are not certain if N Korea currently has a national team, though I think they used to), having the least experienced team out of the 32 in the Finals is a special achievement.
IMO in a world of negativity that is 2018, their real special achievement has been making people smile. Even in defeat, they made people smile, and made people proud. They have been role models.
IMO lots of people can be heroes from all different walks of life, it doesn't have to be a 'my hero is more worthy than your hero' thing, nor do we have a finite number of heroes.

Can we let go the comparison between the England football team and the cave rescuers. It's a meaningless comparison. No one who supports the football team is criticising the cave rescuers, who ever would?
Those of us who enjoyed both the football and the way the team / manager have conducted themselves will never be persuaded to change our minds. Well done those lads.
As for the anti football brigade, they will remain stuck in their cold, critical, angry and negative view of football, its players and its supporters.
Over and Out.

As far as the salaries go they are as entitled to them as the bankers are to theirs. Many of them are working class lads who have used their talent and worked hard to get where they are, and they still stand the chance of being unable to play if they have an injury. And fooballers have been knighted for years, no one remember Sir Stanley Matthews?

Well said Iam64 !!

Cold, critical, and and negative was uncalled for, sorry your team lost but getting nasty will not get them the cup.

trisher -very well said.
I commented earlier that I wonder if the fact footballers are usually drawn from working class communities, results in some of the snobbery and anger directed at the salaries highly successful footballers are able to command.
Their shelf life is short and they're likely to have missed out on higher education if they've been good enough to be snapped up by the youth teams of well known clubs. If they're lucky, they'll earn a fair chunk for about 10 years so they need to invest, save and develop skills in other areas of work. Footie,like acting, modelling, art and so on, is an area of work where a very small number make a lot of money, the rest muddle through. A friend of ours played for a local team and managed to make additional cash by modelling. Neither the footie nor the modelling are going to make him enough to live on, so he runs a chip shop on the side.

Not a footie fan but infected by the joy of it by sons. It was a good bit of fun in the sun for the country. We need more of that. They did well, according to bro, they are very average as a team, except for Harry Kane. I know nothing, but enjoyed it.

One of my Year 11s was allowed off school one day a week as a local Football League team had him signed up as an apprentice. It didn't do a lot for his exam results. They let him go before he was 18.

I, for one (or two or three ...? according to this thread!) am very proud of our English Team. I'm not a fan of football generally, but did get swept away by the excitement of it all. Sadly, they ain't gonna 'bring it home'. But they acted like perfect gentlemen on the pitch - unlike some of those other cheating teams (pushing, shoving, hanging on, tripping up, knocking down, some of their opponents).

Yes, it's only a game of football. And these young men aren't 'heroes' in the true sense of the word. But they did really well, and we should be celebrating that!

There will always be horrible things going on in the world, but that doesn't mean that we can't be joyful for the happy things.