Sir Mick Jagger, one of the most iconic cultural figures in British history, is among those who have seen England lift the World Cup before.
Jagger’s band The Rolling Stones were arguably at their height when England last won the trophy back in the summer of 1966.
🦁 How many England players from the 'Hand of God' game would make it into the Three Lions' current World Cup line-up?
Now, six decades on, England are within touching distance of doing so again – and Jagger has been in the United States to watch the Three Lions make it to only a fourth semi-final in their history.
The 82-year-old was in Miami to watch England beat Norway and that allowed the media team at FIFA to ask him for his memories.
Jagger was recording in LA with only a Spanish-speaking TV channel showing it
Jagger revealed that he watched in the 1966 final from a recording studio in Los Angeles, where he only had access to a Spanish-speaking television channel.
He said: “I was in the recording studio in Los Angeles but it was only on Spanish-speaking television in those days in the US. Can you imagine? The World Cup was not on television for most of America!
“Only on the Spanish station, so I watched a little bit of that on the Spanish station.”
It was a different age, of course. Football was not as accessible on television as it is now, and the level of interest in it in America surely did not approach the levels it has reached this summer.
It’s not quite clear exactly what Jagger was recording at the time. England won the World Cup on July 30, so it seems relatively safe to assume the Stones were working on their album ‘Between The Buttons’, which was released in January 1967.
Just under sixty years since England beat West Germany 4-2 at the old Wembley, there is a genuine chance Thomas Tuchel’s team can end the long wait for their second major international trophy.
Indeed, in that case, Jagger could be one of the relatively rare people to have watched both of England’s World Cup victories.
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