"He was in there having a beer with us. He's just delighted. He's such a big supporter." That's Aston Villa's Matty Cash talking about Prince William after this year's UEFA Europa League final — Villa's first European trophy in 44 years — where the Prince of Wales celebrated with the squad, phone in hand, capturing the moment like any other fan who'd waited a lifetime for it.
Ollie Watkins has William's number saved in his phone. That alone tells you what kind of royal this is.
A fan, not a figurehead
William's connection to Villa started in 2000 at age 11, when friend Ed van Cutsem took him to a Villa vs Bolton game. His parents — the future Charles III and Princess Diana — weren't football people. The atmosphere got him immediately. "I sat there amongst all the Villa fans, and I loved it. The camaraderie, the team ethos," he told Peter Crouch in 2020. He also made a conscious choice to avoid the obvious: "I desperately didn't want to support Manchester United or Chelsea like everyone else at school."
Good call, as it turned out. Villa is a club with genuine history — European Cup winners in 1982 — based in the Midlands, and about as politically neutral a choice as English football offers. Hard to imagine too many people holding it against their future king.
The knowledge goes deeper than casual interest. Before a Champions League game in Paris in April 2024 — where William attended with his son Prince George — he ran through Villa manager Unai Emery's tactical approach with Rio Ferdinand and Ally McCoist. Ferdinand's response: "Don't go for a punditry job, because I could be out of the game." These things don't happen when someone's faking it.
George at his side, Charlotte backing Chelsea
William has spoken openly about football becoming more important to him since becoming a father. "Since being a dad, football has become way more important to me than it ever used to. I need to go and be amongst other guys and kind of let off a bit of steam, shout a bit," he said on a football podcast. As FA president, he admits the referee abuse stays internal: "Not abuse the referee, because I'm the president of the FA, and I can't do that. But in my head, I am."
George is now his regular matchday companion, most recently at that PSG quarter-final in April 2025 — Villa's first European quarter-final in over four decades. "I thought, it's been 43 years since anything like this has happened in my generation as a Villa fan, and I want George to experience a night out away from home in a big European competition," William said.
Princess Charlotte, meanwhile, loves Chelsea. Every family has one.
With the World Cup approaching — England open against Croatia on June 17 — William will be watching closely, likely from the sofa for the group stages and potentially from the stands if England go deep. He's been there for Villa's best moments in a generation. England reaching the knockout rounds would make attendance very hard to resist for a man who showed up in Paris wearing, by his own admission, "all my lucky clothes."
