As if Aston Villa becoming kings of Europe again wasn't glorious, majestic and euphoric enough, things took a really surreal twist.
A Dream Come True
For a bit of context, Dan Rolinson, our multimedia guru from the Claret and Blue podcast, and I had been invited to the final as guests of one of the key tournament sponsors, Flixbus. With that came the great thrill of actually being there to witness history. But it also came with some cracking seats in the corporate posh seats — bang on the halfway line. Unai Emery and the Villa dugout were almost within touching distance, and then the future king, Prince William himself, probably had worse seats than us, about 10 rows behind.
So what happened was, before the game, as we took our seats, I was trying, using my journalistic instincts, to manoeuvre myself into a position where I could try and get a selfie with Wills himself. Now, his security detail meant that it wasn't possible. They very politely said to me, 'No, because if we allow it for one, there's going to be a queue of people. We don't want that to happen. He's here to watch the football,' — which is fine.
Celebrating with the Future King
So we were in the hospitality area, where there were Villa fans, but not many. Most of the people there were neutral. So Dan and I were bringing the spirit of the Villa end between us into the hospitality area: booing dodgy referee decisions, and cheering every Villa pass, tackle, shot, and save. Not that there was much cause for many saves.
And I think it was when the second goal went in, when Emi Buendia smashed that—or rather, delicately clipped that—beautiful second goal into the top corner. We looked, we turned around, and we were celebrating. We were losing our heads, to be honest. We were celebrating, and we caught the eye of Prince William, and he was giving it loads back at us, pointing and fist-pumping and that kind of thing. He was looking directly at us, fist-pumping, energetic and excited. What we were giving him, we were getting back in return. It was a really, really lovely moment.
A Surprise Invitation
Anyway, fast forward. It was the end of the game. John McGinn, bless him, got his hands on that trophy. There was ticker tape celebrations, and the players' families were on the pitch. All of the players were really engaging and celebrating. Why wouldn't they? There were joyous scenes with the Villa fans. Honestly, I have never known anything like it. We were again trying to be roving reporters, getting as close to the action as we could with YouTube lives, Facebook videos, etc. We knew that we were in a privileged position to be in that stadium, and we wanted to give those back home a real flavour of what it was like.
So anyway, we thought nothing of it and stayed there for probably an hour after the game, soaking up the atmosphere. Then we wandered back; we were going to exit the stadium to do a post-match podcast. As we wandered back, I caught Prince William's eye again, and he gave another kind of triumphant fist pump. All of a sudden—and this is where it got really, really weird — he summoned us, saying, 'Come on, come on, have a chat, come and join us. Dan, Mat.' He actually named us — he used our names! 'Come and have a chat.' We were trying to hop over barriers to get there, elbowing people out of the way to try and get to him, just in case the chance disappeared. We had to move through different blocks and across different seats because we had already wandered to a different block from where our seats were. Anyway, we got there. What a lovely, lovely bloke.
A Personal Chat
There is a YouTube video here as part of this, and you can see it happening in real time. But just to cut a very long story short, or to summarise it a little bit. What happened was that he allowed us to film. So, we got three or four minutes chatting with him. He had actually read a thumping rallying cry that I had written on Birmingham Live that morning. We chatted about that, chatted about our emotions, and chatted about how the last time Villa won in Europe was the month before he was born.
Dan Rolinson said to him, 'When are you coming on the podcast then?' He started laughing and said, 'I have been thinking about it, actually.' He added, 'I love what you guys do.' I replied, 'Come on, you are making this up. Come on.' He said, 'I genuinely get my fix of Villa news from you, and from John Townley and his coverage.' It was just really, really brilliant stuff.
The Icing on the Cake
That was the icing on the cake. Obviously, being there to witness Villa becoming champions of Europe again was absolutely wonderful, but knowing that Prince William is a fan of our podcast and a fan of our work was something else.
The one thing that really made my night, though, was easing the 'dad guilt' I had felt for the last 48 hours because my 18-year-old son, Samuel, was unable to join us in Istanbul. He had an A-level exam on the day of the game, so he was watching it in the Witton Arms with a few beers down him. I was watching it inside the stadium, and we were exchanging FaceTime calls so I could see what was going on there, and he could see what was going on here. It was a really positive connection.
I think the best way that I eased my dad guilt was before we left Prince William in peace. I asked him, 'Can you send a message to my son Samuel, my nephew Alex, and my son's friend Jack?' Good as gold, he did just that. He sent a beautiful, beautiful message saying, 'Sorry, lads, that you can't be here, but what a night for Aston Villa. Up the Villa!' It was a brilliant, lovely message. Then, I said to my son, 'I have a surprise for you. You have a goodwill message from the future King of England.' He was like, 'No, no, no, no, no.' So, in the early hours of the morning, I was walking back through the throng of the Claret and Blue carnival. He was back home. I was able to ping this message across, and I got a little WhatsApp text message back from my son saying, 'You are pretty cool, you are, aren't you, Dad?' I think that was my 'John McGinn lifting the trophy' moment, knowing that I got that lovely message for my son.
