2010 World Cup: Scholes admits he would have played for England if asked earlier
As the desperate Fabio Capello spoke to Paul Scholes to ask him to join the ‘The Three Lions’ he couldn’t have imagined a blunt ‘no’ as an answer. With his squad members dropping out due to injuries, the Italian legend went to call on the Manchester United player to join the English squad.
The 35-year-old midfielder from ‘the Red Devils’ must have felt a bit humiliated instead of feeling elevated with honour upon receiving the invitation from Capello this late. He said that he would have joined the squad only if he had asked him earlier. Capello had earlier reached Jamie Carragher from Liverpool, who had retired from the international level. He convinced him to join the squad with ‘the Golden age’ at hand and prove the hands of fate in play.
Scholes took retirement from internationals after participating in the Euro Cup of 2004. Capello in fact asked Scholes a day before he announced his provisional squad of 30 players for the tournament in South Africa.
He was given a deadline of 10 am but the midfielder didn’t wait much and excused himself from the offer, though he did say that if he had been given more time he would have committed to the cause. The English star has been capped 66 times for England and scored 14 goals.
Talking to the media he said, “It’s a big decision and I wasn’t really given enough time to think about it.” He then added, “So I decided not to take up the offer. If they’d asked me earlier, I probably would have accepted.”
Giving an explanation for his cause he firmly said that the reason behind his declining the offer was that he didn’t want to take the spot of another player in the squad, and if he had; he couldn’t have lived with it.
Further explaining his view he said, “There are players in the squad who have spent nearly two years flying all around the world helping England qualify for the World Cup, whereas I haven’t been involved for a long time.”
He contemplated, “It wasn’t a case of wanting to go on holiday, it was the fact that I got the call so close to the tournament. Also I didn’t want to take the place of someone who helped get England to South Africa. The idea just didn’t sit comfortably with me.”
The issue back then was kept behind closed doors and even the media caught air of it much later. It came as a sudden epiphany that Capello was trying to rebuild a falling dream team, his success in the process is another issue.
What Capello had in mind was to have more experience on the field with an adamant veteran figure such as Scholes who has 600 caps under his belt from Manchester United, for whom he has played with for all his professional life.
The story is that Capello’s General Manager, Franco Baldini told Scholes the night before the release of names for the squad and he eventually said no under pressure.
Capello argued, “We tried to convince him to come back for England, but he said no. He preferred to stay with his family. We tried.”
The person to back Scholes was Sir Alex Ferguson saying, “Paul made his decision years ago. I think Fabio did the right thing to give him the opportunity to come back but he's established with his family, and I don't think it was a goer.”
He further said that the star did ask him for advice, “He spoke to me and I told him to go with his gut instinct, and his gut instinct was to stay where he was.”
Scholes was bitterly disappointed along with skipper Rio Ferdinand (Manchester United) who had a knee injury that has resulted in his withdrawal of the tournament this summer.
Scholes stated, “I really feel for Rio, especially getting hurt so close to the start of the action. It’s not just sad for Rio but for England as well because he is captain and an important figure.”
Though the final preparations for The Three Lions are complete the Italian coach is still looking for another midfielder, Gareth Barry has injured himself and won’t be participating in at least the opener.
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