Euro 2020 qualifying: How Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s England fan experience gave him new perspective

Saturday’s Euro 2020 qualifier with Bulgaria is likely to be the Liverpool midfielder’s first England cap since March 2018, having spent last summer watching the World Cup among supporters

It was, according to Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, a “surreal” moment of realisation. “I was shocked,” he says.

Back during that balmy summer of 2018, the Liverpool midfielder decided to take a trip to Boxpark in Shoreditch, to watch one of the World Cup games he would otherwise have started. It was one of the many little opportunities that his long-term injury provided to do something different, but also served to keep him mentally focused. It instead led to something of an out-of-body experience.

“That was the first time I’ve ever watched a football match with football fans of my team, if that makes sense. I’m always either at the stadium, or at home. I’ve never been to a pub where there’s a bunch of Liverpool fans or Arsenal fans or England fans and watched it with them, to see what it means to them.

“It was another moment where I realised – I can’t swear, can I? – it was ‘Shit! I’ve missed something big here! This is special.’”

That is something often forgotten with players who became top-level professionals in their mid-teens, as was the case with the 16-year-old Oxlade-Chamberlain. For him, it’s not something he’d forgotten, it was something he’d never experienced, and a novel inversion of seeing how the other half lived.

“It was a surreal moment where I could see my mates on the screen doing what I usually do, and how everyone around them was reacting and what it meant to them. I was almost idolising them as well. Just seeing them do that and what it was creating around me, I was like “Oh my God, that’s Raheem Sterling, look at what he’s done, do I really do that?” It was an experience, and my friends were like ‘Chambo, this is why it’s so weird for us when we sit at home with you, and then people that we know, how they talk about you and what they think of you’. It’s like, we’re not what you see on there, put it that way.”

Did it not occasionally lead to the urge to show how the other half think, and gently correct any criticisms?

“There were a few times where a bit of abuse stuck out and I wanted to be like ‘Relax, relax, calm down!’ but no, that’s what football’s all about. There were probably a few times when I was with them. ‘What you doing?!’

“Seeing what it meant to people, people rushing in from work, their shirts on still, their ties, bringing their girlfriend who’s rushed in from the City as well. I met a couple of doctors there, a couple of boys from the City, a couple of plumbers, [they] all came into Boxpark and it was just mayhem and meant so much to everyone. I’d never seen that first hand, so it was really, really special and sort of a reminder of what it means to play for England and how special that is.”

Oxlade-Chamberlain in action against Tranmere (Getty)

It adds an extra layer of meaning to Saturday’s Euro 2020 qualifier with Bulgaria for Oxlade-Chamberlain, which is likely to be his first England cap since the March 2018 friendly draw with Italy, especially since Gareth Southgate has already confirmed he would have been a starter had it not been for his serious knee injury.

“It’s like something new again,” he smiles. “It’s been 16 months, and there are a lot of new players here. I’ve got to get used to it again, how things work, the new lads. It’s exciting, feels kind of like a new start.”

It’s certainly been a long road back since going down in the first leg of that Champions League semi-final win over Roma in April 2018. Oxlade-Chamberlain has spoken at length about that recovery, but admits now he didn’t initially tell his Liverpool teammates the extent of the injury, because he didn’t want to dampen the mood around the raucous run to their first Champions League final under Jurgen Klopp.

“A few of them knew the severity, they didn’t know the timescale. They knew I had to go in for surgery, and generally that means nine months. I didn’t want them to put it out to the public and to the fans that it was going to be at least a year at that point just because it would have been a story that wasn’t really relevant at the time in terms of what we were trying to achieve. It was something that will affect the team months and months down the line if I am not going to be available. We don’t need to talk about me. It was more about concentrating on what the boys were doing, and how special that was.”

That run to Kiev felt like the start of the final stage of this Liverpool team’s development, that transformed them into one of the best teams on the planet. It also led to one of the starkest moments for Oxlade-Chamberlain, at the Olympic Stadium in the Ukrainian capital itself.

Oxlade-Chamberlain on the sidelines during the Champions League final (Getty)

“I was at a point where it hadn’t sunk in at that point. The season was still going, everyone was still working towards a thing that was so special in the Champions League that I still felt a massive part of. I was still living on through them. That’s the only thing that matters at that point, and if they win that, I win that, I feel like it was all worth it, and all good. So when the final whistle went there, that’s when it really hit me, and I got a bit emotional on the pitch, that was really hard. Then they had me in at Melwood the next day for rehab! To crack on.”

Oxlade-Chamberlain greatly praises how Liverpool and the fans treated him during his recovery, as well as Southgate.

The trip to watch that match against Belgium during the 2018 World Cup was just one of many little steps to keep a perspective things, to use the injury as a positive, as was increased work on business interests like buying into a tech company. Oxlade-Chamberlain also did a lot of hospital visits, most notably at Christmas to the Zoe’s Place hospice, to which he then donated £20,000.

“You do get times when you do feel sorry for yourself, feeling ‘I can’t play, I’m on my crutches’ but there are people so much worse off and I kept reminding myself of those little things.”

Perspective was essential to this process in general, especially given how much it takes mentally to get your head around the prospect of being out for a year. Oxlade-Chamberlain divided it into steps and goals – walking without crutches, sprinting, kicking a ball – in much the same way he has done with his entire career.

An international match like this, so close to a tournament where he would finally be a key starter, is all the more cause for thought.

“I maybe got caught up at a certain age and probably over-achieved when I was 18. I’m in a position now where I’ve just turned 26 and in my mind I still want to go to those places and give myself the best chance to be as good as I can be. I remember I used to think: ‘When I’m 24 I want to be right at the peak of my career and it’s alright because I’ve still got two years before I’m 24.’ You categorise it into years because your career is only so long but then every year would go behind me. By 24 I wanted to have won the Champions League and be scoring 10-15 goals a season. I set myself all these goals all the time but sometimes things just don’t go the way you want them to. You have injuries, inconsistency, and I have been inconsistent in the past for sure in my performance, sometimes it is opportunity and selection, the quality of players around you and who can get in above you. It is a very competitive industry and sometimes it doesn’t always go the way you want it. But one thing I would say, and why I remain proud of myself, is that even when a lot of things haven’t gone as I wanted them to I still make sure I come back with the same optimism to improve and to do more. I am happy with the way I come back from those things and keep positive and keep striving.”

Starting a Wembley-staged Euro 2020 final at the age of 26 wouldn’t be bad, and is now the very realistic goal.

Oxlade-Chamberlain similarly knows what it would really mean.