The Manchester United defender reveals to FourFourTwo why his first international call up involved a bin bag full of his belongings
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Turning up for your first day of work at a new job can be a daunting thing, and for a professional footballer it is no different.
Just ask Harry Maguire. When Gareth Southgate called him up for England in August 2017, the central defender didn't know what he was supposed to bring for his first day of international duty, so, he turned to then Leicester City teammate and the notoriously mischievous Jamie Vardy.
"I’d come from Leicester, where the limelight wasn’t as big," Maguire told FourFourTwo in the latest issue, a World Cup special available to order. I wasn’t used to what I know now – that when you play for Manchester United and England, you are analysed every time you do something.
"I got called up for England and asked Jamie Vardy what you were supposed to turn up in. He told me to take my boots in a black bin bag, so I did. I still don’t know if he was having me on. It was a good one if he was..."
Maguire made his debut in a 1-0 win against Lithuania, in the final World Cup qualification group match, but the main attention he received was using a bin bag packed full of his boots and belongings.
However, Maguire can be forgiven for his slightly questionable decision. After all, just a year before he had attended two of England's Euro 2016 fixtures in France as a fan, so clearly he was living out the dream by turning up to St. George's Park.
In May 2016, Maguire earned promotion back to the Premier League with Hull City, beating Sheffield Wednesday in the play-off final at Wembley. However, he was nowhere near the radar of England's senior side, allowing him to hop over the channel with his two brothers and friends in order to support the nation.
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Harry Maguire back in his Hull City days in 2016 (Image credit: Matthew Lewis/Getty Images)
"I’d been going to England games since I was a kid. I went to a few at Wembley over the years, but going to France for the Euros with eight of my mates was amazing.
"Rather than any team-mates, my two brothers were with me, and my schoolmates from Mosborough in Sheffield. Some are Blades and some are Wednesday – there’s a fierce rivalry in our group."
One of his friends, a Leeds United fan, gathered a bit of social media attention last season when Maguire cheekily stuck his head in the Elland Road crowd of an Instagram post after scoring against Leeds, something eagle-eyed supporters quickly spotted.
Maguire has now been to three major tournaments with England (Image credit: Matthew Ashton - AMA/Getty Images)
"There’s even a Leeds fan, too. When we won at Elland Road last season with Man United, I stuck a picture of his head into the crowd in one of my social media posts, and he got thousands of messages. They’ve been my mates all of my life, and they still follow me around now – they’ll be in Qatar.
"Back then [in 2016], we went together and all supported England. We went for eight days and were right in the middle of the fans. I loved it. I kept a low profile and only got recognised a little bit.
"I was at Hull then and a few Hull fans were there, but I could walk around, no problem. We watched the Wales and Slovakia games. There were tens of thousands of England fans at those games – they’re the best fans in the world, even though it was a disappointing tournament."
Ryan is a staff writer for FourFourTwo, joining the team full-time in October 2022. He first joined Future in December 2020, working across FourFourTwo, Golf Monthly, Rugby World and Advnture's websites, before eventually earning himself a position with FourFourTwo permanently. After graduating from Cardiff University with a degree in Journalism and Communications, Ryan earned a NCTJ qualification to further develop as a writer while a Trainee News Writer at Future.
