Yesterday morning the England team landed at 8.30am local time here in Rio de Janeiro. Once the players arrived at their hotel in São Conrado it didn’t take long for a few of them to go for a wander along the beach – without any security ! Daniel Sturridge, Jordan Henderson, Chris Smalling and Danny Welbeck were the ones who ventured out, along with Manager Roy Hodgson and his assistant – ex Man United – Gary Neville. The players were followed every step of the way by around 70 people but most of them kept up good spirits, stopping to talk to locals and England fans, as well as signing the odd shirt here and there.
The most famous newspaper here “Globo” ran several articles praising the players attitudes mostly, but also saying it didn’t take long for a couple of them to become irritated, especially when people started to grab their shoulders pulling them back. Globo, as well as Sky Sports in England, mentioned how Gary Neville wanted to go for a walk alone along the beach but was followed by journalists the whole time, eventually telling one to “F*** off”. It’s fair to say the media here haven’t taken to Mr.Neville. One local, unimpressed by one of the players attitudes shouted “you’re going to lose to Italy!”
Today, on the teams second day in Rio, the England team tried to leave around 9.45am to go to their private training base in Urca, near the famous Sugar Loaf mountain. Globo again picked up on the story of how the entire traffic on the road was held up for 15 minutes as the bus had accidentally LEFT BEHIND Ross Barkley ! They almost didn’t realise and left without him, but once they noticed they had to wait for him, leaving many frustrated people held up in the traffic honking their horns and journalists and other people nearby surrounded the coach to get pictures of the team. Apparently after training they’ll visit a nearby favela. Me personally, I’m going to head to the public beach where they’re staying later and see if I can get involved in the action ! Photos to follow if I have any success! Are you in Rio? Anywhere else in Brazil? Managed to bump into any players? Let me know!
World Cup 2014 - View from Rio 