The Duke of Cambridge confessed to grabbing the Twitter account to post about football. He recalled the moment he made the impulsive post while chatting about football on BBC Radio 5 Live’s That Peter Crouch Podcast. He had a casual chat over a curry and a pint with former England player Peter Crouch and the podcast’s other two hosts, radio presenter Chris Stark and BBC Sport Interactive journalist Tom Fordyce.
During their conversation, which took place at Kensington Palace, William was asked whether he controlled the official Instagram.
He said: “No, they deliberately keep me away from that.
“I have tried a couple of times ‒ when Liverpool did that amazing semi-final against Barcelona, I grabbed hold of the Twitter thing and I just posted it.”
The three men listening all burst out laughing.
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William continued: “It was an amazing match! I was literally blown away by it.
“It was one of the best games of football I’ve ever seen and I got completely out of control and I was like ‘just tweet that, get it out’.”
The Duke, who is a huge Aston Villa fan, said he has tried to repeat this whenever his team win a game, but has so far been unsuccessful.
He said: “Nearly every Villa game that we’ve won, which hasn’t been many this season, but nearly every Villa game, I’ve been trying to get hold of it but they keep it away from me now.
“All my friends were either Man United fans or Chelsea fans and I didn’t want to follow the run of the mill teams.
“I wanted to have a team that was more mid-table that could give me more emotional rollercoasters.”
And rollercoasters he has had, with Aston Villa narrowly missing relegation this season.
William has been spotted at numerous matches over the years and often dons the famous claret and blue.
The Duke of Cambridge was on That Peter Crouch Podcast to discuss his initiative Heads Up: Football Unites for Mental Health, which aims to make people ‒ especially men ‒ feel as comfortable talking about mental health as they do football.
He had been working with the FA Cup, renamed Heads Up FA Cup, with a project that would build up to the FA Cup final at Wembley, although no fans were there in the end due to COVID-19 restrictions.
William said he wants to start the “largest ever conversation” about mental health and a recent BBC One documentary entitled ‘Football, Prince William and Our Mental Health’ followed his journey in setting up the initiative.
Mr Crouch told the prince during their podcast that, when he took part in one of the changing room chats, he felt he was able to open up in a way he never had before, even to his family.
The star striker said he felt “genuinely so much better” after talking about his emotions.
Meanwhile, William emphasised how “mental fitness” is just as important in sport as physical fitness.
