Royal football fans

It’s no secret that William, Prince of Wales, is an avid football fan. He’s been the President of England's Football Association (FA) since 2016 and enjoys playing the sport as much as he loves watching it. But did you know which team the football-mad (1) royal supports?

The heir to the throne has supported Aston Villa since he was at school. In 2015, speaking to BBC presenter Gary Lineker, he revealed why he chose the team, who are currently eighth in the Premier League. He said that: “A long time ago at school I got into football big time. I was looking around for clubs. All my friends at school were either Manchester United fans or Chelsea fans and I didn’t want to follow the run-of- the-mill (2) teams. I wanted to have a team that was more mid-table, that could give me more rollercoaster moments.”

And though we don’t yet know who the Prince of Wales’s young children, Prince George, Prince Charlotte and Prince Louis, will support, William and his eldest, George, were spotted at an Aston Villa versus Nottingham Forest match at the beginning of April. The pair were seen high fiving those around them when Villa scored, and were ecstatic (3) with the team’s 2-0 victory.

Not all the British royals call themselves ‘Villans’. King Charles revealed in 2012 that he is a supporter of Burnley FC, who last won the FA Cup in 1914 when Charles’s great-grandfather, George V, was King. Prince Harry, who launched The Invictus Games in 2014, once alluded to the fact that many of the Windsors support Arsenal. And some even suspect that the late Queen Elizabeth II was a secret West Ham fan, though she was notoriously impartial in public.

Scions of other European dynasties also enjoy the beautiful game. King Felipe of Spain, for instance, has supported Atlético de Madrid since he was a young boy and flew to Qatar to watch the Spanish national squad in the World Cup last November.

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The Norwegian royal family even enjoys getting together for a kickabout (4). Each summer they hold a friendly football match at their Skaugum estate, located to the southwest of Oslo. Last year the footballer Erling Haaland – the 1.93 metre striker who was signed to Manchester City last year in a staggering (5) £51.2 million deal – joined the royal family as they played against Vivil IL, a team that seeks to help disabled people around Norway take part in sport. Though the royal team lost 10-9, Crown Princess Mette-Marit, Crown Prince Haakon’s wife, scored a goal.

1. Football-mad = obsessed with football

2. Run-of-the-mill = average, ordinary

3. Ecstatic = overjoyed, extremely happy

4. Kickabout = an informal game of football

5. Staggering = astonishing