England fans vs. Arsenal professional
©IMAGO
The rifts between some fans of the English national team and Arsenal professional Ben White are apparently deeper than those involved had hoped. On Friday, the right-back scored the 1-0 lead for the Three Lions in the friendly against Uruguay (1-1) at Wembley Stadium and was then booed when his name was read out as the goalscorer. The same thing happened before when he came on as a substitute in the 69th minute. Coach Thomas Tuchel defended the 28-year-old afterwards and seemed to want to downplay the incident. The tragic point of the evening was that it was White, of all people, who played a key role in ensuring that the English were unable to win the game in the end.
“There were some boos and mixed reactions to him, which disappoints me because of course we protect our players and he was excellent in training and deserved to be substituted,” said Tuchel after the game, adding: “He also deserved to be in the starting line-up and he almost gave us the win, but as far as I understand that has happened to other players here too.”
But what actually happened? For White, it was the first nomination and first appearance for England since 2022. Ex-coach Gareth Southgate had used the then Brighton shooting star for the first time in 2021, shortly before he started at Arsenal, took him to the European Championships and also named him in the World Cup squad in 2022. However, White didn’t stay there long. “For personal reasons,” it was said at the time, he left the team in the middle of the tournament in Qatar. There was later speculation that White had a falling out with a member of the coaching staff. White, who was accused of letting the team down, then rejected further appeals from national coach Southgate. He obviously couldn’t restore his reputation among the Three Lions fans.
“He just has to accept it now,” said Tuchel after the game on Friday. “We will always protect him and hopefully we can put this behind us because he is ready for a fresh start and we are ready to give him that chance.” At the same time, Tuchel seemed to be trying not to make the fans’ expressions of displeasure seem too great. He didn’t hear any boos himself, as he was already busy with the substitution and giving instructions to the player. “So I think it couldn’t have been the majority,” said the selection coach.
White is booed and takes the decisive penalty
The evening could hardly have ended more bitterly for White. After the boos when he was substituted on in the 69th minute and after the opening goal in the 81st minute, he was back in focus shortly before the final whistle. In stoppage time, White awarded a penalty for a foul on Federico Viñas, which referee Sven Jablonski only awarded the Uruguayans after the video assistant intervened. Federico Valverde scored in the fourth minute of injury time to make the final score 1-1 at Wembley.
