This June, England football captain Steven Gerrard will have his eyes on just the ball — on the football pitch! The 33-year-old Liverpool star has ‘banned’ his wife and kids from traveling with him to Brazil for the FIFA World Cup because of the “distraction”.
Gerrard, who has played in two World Cups so far, has decided to keep hottie wife Alex Curran – a model and a fashion columnist – at home for the World Cup starting June 12. And while it is learnt that coach Roy Hodgson will let players take their wives and girlfriends to the land of the Samba, Gerrard is not letting anything sway him from winning the trophy for his country.
“I thought it was bit of a distraction (taking family to World Cups), so in 2010 when I set off for the World Cup in South Africa, I preferred for my family to be away from me and I could focus on trying to get my form right,” he was quoted as saying by the British media. “So I will be doing the same again in Brazil.”
England will begin World Cup 2014 on June 14 against Italy, with dreams of winning the title again after 48 years. Gerrard feels the ‘dreams’ are worth sacrificing time with his wife and three daughters.
“The last thing I want to be doing is getting dragged here, there and everywhere by three young girls — which is not their fault, but I have to sacrifice that side of it for hopefully six weeks or eight weeks and hopefully get the rewards,” he said.
While there’s a woman behind every successful man, Alex has already done a lot for her husband, who has recently also led a Liverpool upsurge in the English Premier League. The 31-year-old former nail technician has balanced a successful modelling career and a profession as a columnist in UK’s Daily Mirror with supporting Gerrard through the highs and lows of football.
This World Cup though, she would not be ‘captaining the England WAGS team’. Instead, Alex will have to watch her ‘man’ on television as he carries the hopes of an entire nation on his shoulders!
