Anno 1996, l’Inghilterra calcistica – rinata dalle ceneri dell’embargo europeo dovuto alla piaga hooligans – si appresta ad ospitare i campionati europei. Il football torna a casa e i comedians David Baddiel e Frank Skinner – in collaborazione con la band di Liverpool The Lightning Seeds – partoriscono quello che ancora oggi è considerato l’inno non ufficiale della nazionale inglese: Three Lions, Football’s coming home.
Era infatti dai vittoriosi mondiali del 1966 che l’Inghilterra non ospitava una manifestazione (Fifa o Uefa che sia) dedicata alle nazionali; 30 anni dopo gli inglesi dovettero dimostrare che il “virus” hooliganismo (passatemi il neologismo) era stato debellato. Fu la prima edizione degli europei che seguì da tifoso e appassionato, un’edizione in cui la nazionale di Gazza e Shearer andava di pari passo con il successo radiofonico di questo pezzo musicale tanto orecchiabile quanto britpop, il vero fenomeno degli anni ’90 nella terra di Albione.
Link youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJqimlFcJsM NB: versione del 1996 riadattata poi due anni dopo per i mondiali di Francia ’98.
Three Lions, Football’s coming home
It’s coming home
It’s coming home
It’s coming
Footballs coming home
It’s coming home
It’s coming home
It’s coming
Footballs coming home
It’s coming home
It’s coming home
It’s coming
Footballs coming home
It’s coming home
It’s coming home
It’s coming
Footballs coming home
Everyone seems to know the score
They’ve seen it all before
They just know, they’re so sure
That England’s gonna throw it away
Gonna blow it away
But I know they can play
Cos I remember
(chorus)
Three Lions on a shirt
Jules Rimet still gleaming
Thirty years of hurt
Never stopped me dreaming
So many jokes, so many sneers
But all those oh-so nears
When your down, through the years
But I still see that tackle by Moore
And when Lineker scored
Bobby belting the ball
And Nobby dancing
(chorus)
I know that was then
But it could be again
It’s coming home
It’s coming
Footballs coming home
It’s coming home
It’s coming home
It’s coming
Footballs coming home
It’s coming home
It’s coming home
It’s coming
Footballs coming home
It’s coming home
It’s coming home
It’s coming
Footballs coming home
(repeat chorus to fade)
The Pyramid... 