By Christopher Carrillo
The beautiful game of football encapsulates the hearts and souls of millions of people around the world every year. Whether it be club or country, people are always elated to watch their favorite team play. Despite both the highs of success and the lows of failures, the one thing that remains in people’s minds is their unfettered love and admiration for the game.
This particular love for the game is only emphasized every four years when the world comes together to watch the spectacle of the sport, the FIFA World Cup. With it being 2022, and the English national team making a deep run into the tournament, many are continuously hearing the famous “Three Lions” song by Baddiel and Skinner and Lightning Seeds. While the song has evolved to a chant sung by English fans over the years, it has a deeper history that many do not know about.
The birthplace of the modern game of football is England, a country known for its historic footballers, such as David Beckham, and the success of its domestic league, the English Premier League. While many fans can’t wait for the weekend to watch their favorite club play, they’re all willing to put aside their differences every so often to watch the national team play. This is due to the sense of pride they get when they watch their country play against another.
The song that has become synonymous with the English team is the “Three Lions” song which was released in May of 1996. The song’s origins do not coincide with the FIFA World Cup but rather the 1996 UEFA European Football Championship, more commonly known as Euro 96. This year, England hosted the tournament across eight different cities, and the English Football Authority needed a song to define the tournament. They tasked Ian Broudie of the Lightning Seeds to come up with the melody and offered to have players sing the song, but Broudie turned down the offer. Broudie didn’t want the song to come off as too nationalistic but rather to be more about being a football song.
The English national team crest in which the song “Three Lions” is named after.
While the song has had various versions throughout the years, the one commonality has been the chorus lyrics of “It’s coming home.” This lyric was originally included to pay homage to the fact that England was hosting its first tournament since the 1966 World Cup, which they also won. Moreover, this lyric pays tribute to the fact that the sport was returning back to its homeland. The song’s title is also derived from the three lions on the nation’s crest.
The interesting thing about the song is that the lyrics don’t speak of the unbridled optimism of victory but rather how England has always failed to perform on the sport’s biggest stages despite having some of the best players. The players, however, shouldn’t feel down but rather motivated as one day England will succeed again, and they should have high hopes, as a reference to the line “Thirty years of hurt never stopped me dreaming.” Despite failures of the past, there is high hope that this is finally the time they can change the course of history.
Now with each and every international tournament, the song can be heard being played throughout the country and in the stadiums, as it has been used as the de facto chant of English supporters. The song quickly rises up the charts when the country does well, as evidenced by its first-place appearance during the 2018 Men’s World Cup when the team saw itself in the semifinals against Croatia.
As for their fate in the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, England most recently beat Senegal in their Round of 16 Matchup after topping Group B. Their next match, against France on Saturday (12/10), will test the Lion’s ability to play up to one of the tournament’s favorites. Only time will tell if this is the year that the World Cup will finally be coming home or if the team will suffer the same fate once again.
