"I'm wearing all my lucky clothes." That's Prince William, nervous as any matchday regular, before Aston Villa faced PSG in Paris in April 2025. Rio Ferdinand, a man who has played Champions League finals, admitted he nearly lost his punditry job in the conversation that followed.
This isn't performance. William has been going to Villa Park since he was 11 years old, when Ed van Cutsem dragged him along to Villa vs. Bolton in 2000. His parents — the future King Charles and Princess Diana — weren't football people. The game found him through his mates, and it never let go.
"I sat there amongst all the Villa fans, and I loved it," he told Peter Crouch in 2020. "The atmosphere, the camaraderie, the team ethos." He also, pointedly, didn't want to support Manchester United or Chelsea like everyone else at school. Even at 11, he had opinions.
Partying with the squad after Bilbao
This year, Villa won the UEFA Europa League — their first European trophy in 44 years — and William was there for the final whistle. He was also, by multiple player accounts, there for the celebrations afterwards. Matty Cash confirmed it plainly: "He was in there having a beer with us. He's just delighted." Ollie Watkins, who also plays for England, has William's number saved in his phone.
That's not a royal doing a PR appearance. That's a fan who happened to be born into the wrong family for publicly losing his mind at a referee — something he's admitted he desperately wants to do. As FA president, he can't. In his head, apparently, he does it anyway.
Since becoming a father, he says football has become even more important. Prince George now joins him regularly at matches, and William has spoken openly about wanting his son to experience Villa's European nights — "43 years since anything like this happened in my generation as a Villa fan."
Why Aston Villa was always the right call
There's an accidental political logic to his choice of club. Midlands-based, historically significant without being recently dominant, Villa doesn't inflame the tribal rivalries the way a Manchester United or Liverpool support would. A future king backing a club that a third of the country genuinely detests would be a different story entirely.
But the deeper point is simpler: this predates any calculation. He picked them as a kid, he's stuck with them through the unremarkable years, and he was in Bilbao — or wherever the final was played — when they finally lifted something in Europe again. That's 25 years of following a football club. Most fans can respect that, whatever team they support.
With the World Cup on the horizon and England opening against Croatia, William will be watching — and almost certainly in his lucky clothes.
