Connect with us

Entertainment

From Wags to riches: why footballer’s wives and girlfriends became our 00s obsession-Kimberley Bond-Entertainment – Metro

The 2006 Fifa World Cup seems a lifetime ago…

From Wags to riches: why footballer’s wives and girlfriends became our 00s obsession-Kimberley Bond-Entertainment – Metro

Toto, I dont think we’re in Baden Baden anymore… (Picture: Getty)

It wasn’t even that long ago, but with the world so dramatically different, the Fifa World Cup of 2006 now feels a lifetime away.

David Beckham, with a heavily gelled blonde mop, was captain of England’s team. The fans’ hopes were firmly pinned to Goldenballs being the one to bring football home from Germany.

Meanwhile, a fresh-faced Wayne Rooney was the team’s wonderkid, establishing himself as a star goal scorer at Man United. Then there was Ashley Cole, touted as one of the best defenders of his generation, caught in a bitter battle between his current team Arsenal, while being wooed to join Chelsea on substantially higher wages.

While the players were making headlines on the back pages of the newspapers for their antics on the pitch, it was their wives and girlfriends, the ‘Wags’, making the front page while out representing the nation in Baden-Baden.

The eclectic collective of women were keen to enjoy their time out in the relatively quiet German town to the very max; with Victoria ‘Posh Spice’ Beckham sitting pretty at the top of the Wag hierarchy, they were easy to spot in the wild. Tending to roam together in a pack, the Wags all sported the same look; perma-tanned, with glossy long locks boasting honey and caramel chunky highlights and thickened by luscious hair extensions. Their petite faces were often obscured by saucer-esque sunglasses and baker boy caps, with large designer bags balancing on their delicate wrists.

Their Brits-abroad antics made for delectable tabloid fodder – from all-night parties (involving Abbey Clancy table dancing) to spending sprees amounting tens of thousands of pounds (something Coleen Rooney amazingly described as ‘picking up a few bits’), they quickly established themselves as the darlings of Fleet Street, with red top papers flexing their financial heft in the height of their power, willing to fork out six figures for salacious photosets and juicy interviews. Urban legend has it they even earned their new moniker by a pithy tabloid reporter, with the word immediately entering our daily lexicon.

While the 2006 World Cup in Germany may have been what catapulted the wives and girlfriends of footballers into the spotlight and the glare of camera flashes, the rise of Wag culture had its roots laid back as early as the nineties.

Sam Carlisle, a former red top reporter who now runs her own PR company, attributes the £304million cash injection the revamped Premier League got when Sky bought the rights in 1992, to the moneyed culture around football.

‘The wealth from the TV rights really trickled down to the players,’ she explains to Metro.co.uk. ‘There were suddenly these quite young men earning massive salaries, and they were now some of the most eligible bachelors in the country.’

The Wags were regularly seen on nights out when they hit Baden Badem (Photo by C. Uncle/FilmMagic)

Always glamorous and spotted sitting together, they were regular fixtures at football matches (Picture: Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images)

Their lifestyle was characterised by looking glamorous and going out partying regularly (Picture: C. Uncle/FilmMagic)

These nouveau riche footballers spent lavishly; boasting luxury penthouses, fleets of supercars and wardrobes stacked with designer clothes.

‘But they were going out to local bars and clubs,’ Sam continues, ‘Which made them seem quite accessible to ordinary women.’

The early noughties were a time where clubbing thrived; following in the footsteps of the Cool Britannia era that preceded it, the British economy was strong, income was more disposable, and people were generally more carefree and willing to hit the bars at the weekend. Labour passing licencing laws that welcomed the advent of 24 hour drinking in 2005 also likely contributed to this culture that was prevalent at the time.

‘Wags were effectively the little sisters of the ladettes that came before them,’ Sam continues. ‘They were the next incarnation of women going out partying, having access to money and being quite shameless about what they were doing.’

What also made them such a tabloid draw was the simple fact that Wags made for a good story. While Victoria Beckham and Cheryl were literal pop stars, many of the other Wags were simply ordinary women, or in the case of Coleen Rooney, a school girl, who were naively entering a plush and glitzy showbiz world.

‘For many of the Wags, there was a fairytale narrative, but it was Coleen who really embodied this rags to riches tale,’ Sam explains. ‘She entered the scene as a school girl from a working class family in Liverpool.

Coleen was still a schoolgirl when Rooney shot to fame (Picture: John Peters/Manchester United via Getty Images)

Coleen Rooney was popular with the papers, thanks to incredible story and rise to fame from humble beginnings (Picture: ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP via Getty Images)

Her relatable image saw her land multiple work contracts with big brands (Picture: Chiaki Nozu/FilmMagic)

‘She was thrust into the spotlight, but she didn’t just trade off Wayne’s fame, she hustled to make her money with her “girl next door” image. She had her own TV shows, exercise videos, columns in glossy mags. She was paid £3million to front the George from Asda series.

‘And why not? Good on her. She got a fairytale ending – albeit a very modern fairytale. This was a big misconception about many Wags, that they just lived off their husband’s money, but a lot of them had their own professions and bought in their own income.’

For many, this often meant their relationship with the press was symbiotic. Sam laughingly recalls hearing about the hotel the Wags were staying in at Baden Baden choosing to put up screens so they could sunbathe in private – only to be forced to take them down when they complained that paps couldn’t get pictures of them.

‘In these early days, Wags didn’t have the PR control that celebrities have now,’ she explains. ‘There was a naivety to them. There wasn’t this structure around them to put their story out in a certain way. They were going out, getting drunk and just having a good time. Life was one big, glamorous party.’

It was something we certainly wanted to buy into; a 2008 survey from a teen magazine saw more girls wanted to be Wags than politicians, while a tongue-in-cheek directional book WAG Don’t ­Wannabe: How to Date Footballers – and Survive! was released for all aspiring hopefuls.

It’s little surprise the Wag lifestyle appealed to teens – it was filled with glitz, glamour and parties (Picture: Fred Duval/FilmMagic)

The every movement of Wags were documented by paps, willing to snap their every move (Picture: Marc Piasecki/FilmMagic)

Designer fashion and handbags were as much Wag staples as the footballers on their arm (Picture: Dave Hogan/Getty Images)

‘Wag was a byword for celebrity,’ pop culture expert Nick Ede explains. ‘So many young girls wanted in on that lifestyle as it was seen as ultra glam and aspirational – living in a huge house and being super stylish. It’s not too different to how some young people may see Love Island now.’

However, this glitzy, technicoloured world stands in stark contrast to today, as the cultural landscape has since changed beyond recognition. With rising energy bills, mortgage rates and food prices, many people no longer have such spending power. Clubs and pubs across the country have been forced to close their doors, and for many, endless partying is simply impossible.

Meanwhile, the world of celebrity has been entirely revolutionised by social media. Paps can very rarely demand big money, as celebrities can choose to communicate directly with fans through Instagram and Twitter, among other apps. Statements are carefully worded, photos immaculately airbrushed.

It’s through these apps that women can now make their millions without ever having needed their profiles boosted by famous footballers.

Of course, it was a hugely misogynistic time

‘The ostentatious high extremes of the noughties are gone,’ Nick explains. ‘There has been a massive shift and that culture of being famous thanks to your footballer boyfriend is long dead.’

We also can’t pretend the press coverage during halcyon days Wags was always fawning and fair.

Wags were often spoken about disparagingly, ogled as window dressing while the footballers were heaped with praise if the team were doing well. However, they were scapegoated should things go wrong; when England was spectacularly booted out of the quarter finals by Portugal in 2006, the Wags were inexplicably blamed, dubbed as a ‘distraction’ just for merely daring to exist.

‘Of course, it was a hugely misogynistic time,’ Martin Conboy, Professor of Journalism at the University of Sheffield, explains. ‘Women were framed as appendages to their male counterparts.

When England were losing, the Wags were blamed for ‘distracting’ the other players (Picture: ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP via Getty Images)

With the Wags about, a large media circus followed – with paps being able to sell pictures for huge sums (Picture: Chris Uncle/FilmMagic)

But the relationship between the press and Wags wasn’t always one-way (Picture: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)

‘It’s little surprise that the culture around the England football team now is more sedate – why would anyone want to be open to such intense media scrutiny?

‘There was a time where pretty much everyone could name England’s first team because of their celebrity status and, in some cases, infamy. Now, their images are much more tightly controlled.’

It’s certainly true there’s less publicly known scandal surrounding the England team: while cheating allegations and kiss and tell stories were peppered throughout Rooney’s footballing career (as with several other footballers), the current team have mostly kept themselves squeaky clean. Captain Harry Kane is best known for goal scoring rather than bed-hopping, while Marcus Rashford established himself as a national treasure for his extensive campaigning.

More generally speaking, lazily tarring all footballer’s partners with the ‘Wag’ brush seems a little redundant. In some cases, the fame and earning power of some ‘Wags’, such as Little Mix’s Perrie Edwards far surpasses that of their significant other (Liverpool’s Alex Oxlade Chamberlain).

Others just choose to bow out of that scene altogether – Georgina Irwin, the fiancée of Aaron Ramsdale, still continues to work as a flight attendant. Meanwhile, Paige Milian, the fiancée of Raheem Stirling, keeps a low profile helping to run Stirling’s property company.

Perrie Edwards would not be described as a ‘Wag’, despite her footballing boyfriend (Picture: TOLGA AKMEN/AFP via Getty Images)

Harry Kane is better known for his football than his family life (Picture: Marc Atkins/Getty Images)

With these numerous contributing factors, it’s unlikely we’re going to see the same debauched behaviour from Baden-Baden replicated in the ultra-conservative Qatar – but that’s not to say we’re over our guilty obsession with Wag culture.

Having mostly kept out of the spotlight in more recent years, Coleen Rooney’s decision to turn detective in 2019 and accuse someone with access to Rebekah Vardy’s Instagram account of leaking stories to a tabloid prompted universal public interest (Vardy has denied she was responsible). With the media dubbing the saga ‘Wagatha Christie’, things got juicier when Rebekah sued Coleen for libel, and the court case provided a fascinating insight into a world most people aren’t privy to.

‘It was a once in a lifetime moment where interest around pop culture, tabloids and selling stories collided,’ Nick explains. ‘Most of us have literally seen Coleen grow up, and Rebekah has made a name for herself on numerous reality shows.

The ‘Wagatha Christie’ trial, between Coleen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy. fascinated the nation (Picture: Neil Mockford/GC Images)

The libel trial gripped the nation, after Coleen’s legendary 2019 tweet (Picture: Neil Mockford/GC Images)

‘It also just highlighted this ridiculous world of Wags and what they get up to.’

‘It was absolutely fascinating,’ Sam agrees. ‘People are always drawn to what rich celebrities do, and this was an absolute circus. It’s a world we wanted a mirror into.

‘That whole story opened a door to that world which had firmly been kept shut. Now, we could view things with great detail, and there’s part of our psyche who are fascinated by people who have loads of money and still make terrible decisions.’

More: Showbiz

However, the heyday of Wags like we saw in the noughties is well and truly over – 2006 was the culmination of a perfect storm of factors, which cultivated an iconic era that we’re all still obsessed with – albeit slightly shame-facedly – nearly two decades later.

‘It was the real age of excess,’ Sam explains. ‘It was the roaring twenties of its time, before everything crashed. There were numerous moral implications for that, but for so many people, it was a giddy, excitable time where anything goes.’

Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing Kimberley.Bond@metro.co.uk 

Share your views in the comments below.


MORE : From Victoria Beckham and Cheryl to Abbey Clancy: The Baden-Baden 2006 World Cup Wags – then v now


MORE : What the World Cup in Qatar and country’s strict customs mean for England Wags


MORE : Where to buy England home and away World Cup kits and how much they cost

Entertainment – MetroRead More