Prince William had one work event this week, a solo visit to a farm in North Yorkshire on Tuesday. He dutifully looked at sheep, pointed at things and grabbed a box of pastries. That was the sum total of William’s work schedule this week – he didn’t attend Buckingham Palace’s first garden party of the season, nor did he attend the Order of St Michael and St George yesterday. William, the heir to the throne, left his 77-year-old cancer-stricken father to be supported by the 90-year-old Duke of Kent. The 90-year-old, disabled Duke of Kent and the Prince of Wales have the same number of “work events” this week. But William found time to watch Aston Villa in person last night.
Prince William celebrated in the Aston Villa dressing room with head coach Unai Emery and his players as his favourite football team booked their first European final in 44 years with an emphatic 4-0 win over Nottingham Forest.
The future king was on hand to witness the king of the Europa League, Emery, write another remarkable chapter in the competition as his side secured a meeting with Freiburg in Istanbul on May 20. A 4-1 aggregate win in the semi-final took Emery to his sixth Europa League final in the past 13 years, with a fourth different club. Of his previous five finals, Emery has won four, his only defeat coming with Arsenal, against Chelsea, in 2019.
“He was in the dressing room with the players and me,” Emery said of the Prince of Wales. “He is so happy for us. “Europe is very important. In my first press conference here I was speaking about Europe, I was speaking about trophies as well, but it’s very difficult to win, it’s difficult to get trophies. In Europe it’s difficult to be consistent like we are. It’s through our hard work and the players must set the standards we want to achieve. Today the players got their best, collectively and individually.”
Villa, in a European final for the first time since they won the European Cup in 1982, are also aiming for a first trophy since the 1996 League Cup. And after losing semi-finals in the Europa Conference League and FA Cup over the past two seasons, veteran captain John McGinn, who scored two of Villa’s goals, insists his team must lose their tag of “nearly men” against the Germans in the final.
Congrats to Aston Villa. I’m surprised that William wasn’t bad luck, but you know he’ll make it to the final and that’s probably when the luck will run out. We’ve seen it before. Maybe football fans will boo his ass again. As for the photos of William celebrating… he always looks absolutely unhinged when he’s “happy.”
‘Arise Sir Emi’ 😅
Prince William thoroughly enjoyed Buendia’s goal 🙌
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Photos courtesy of Getty Images.
