Retired teacher Geoff Martel, 81, is the captain of the England over-75s and featured on This Morning on Monday with some of his teammates to speak about an upcoming World Cup 60th anniversary rematch of the famous 1966 World Cup final with Germany.
The ‘Silver Lions’ are featuring in a documentary about veterans football which will also highlight the rematch.
‘We were asked our availability for an interview, and then only found out on Saturday that we would be wanted on This Morning on Monday morning after England’s Sunday night match,’ he said.
‘I was playing football [for the Guernsey over-60s] against Essex on Sunday afternoon, I had to leave the pitch early to get on the plane. Everything was all booked for me, a brilliant hotel and everything.’
Mr Martel, joined by four teammates, was in the studio for 9am and were told they would be on camera at about 10.30am.
They appeared wearing England team kit.
‘Everything seems to be taking off big time at the moment, it’s just incredible how we’ve gone from virtually nothing to all this attention,’ he said yesterday.
‘It was just meant to be a documentary about old people playing football and the health benefits and then it caught on. Everything has suddenly sprung up and this last week has been quite hectic.’
The team plays together at least once a month, although has been more regular recently so they are all ready for the match against Germany.
Training included a session during last week’s heatwave and another one is due to be filmed by Sky Sports.
‘I’m lucky that I’ve got Aztech here to train because there aren’t many people I can train with,’ said Mr Martel.
‘It shows that you can enjoy yourself even though you’re getting older. I’m the oldest member of the team but I’ve got to keep going to maintain it because I’ve got younger ones coming in all the time who are just entering their 70s.’
England over-75s have met their German counterparts several times.
They enjoyed a victory on penalties against them in Cardiff but last October in Japan they fell to defeat.
The anniversary rematch takes place on Thursday 30 July at Oldham Athletic’s Boundary Park ground, kicking off at 3pm.
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