Delph faces clash between family and country at World Cup
The Manchester City midfielder’s third child is due to be born during the tournament.
Fabian Delph considers himself both a team man and a family man but faces a clash between the two at the World Cup, with his third child due to arrive mid-tournament.
The Manchester City midfielder is delighted to be part of the England squad this summer but is facing a collision of responsibilities, with wife Natalie due to give birth on June 30.
That is two days after the Three Lions’ final group game against Belgium and two days before a prospective last-16 fixture should they top Group G.
Delph impressed City boss Pep Guardiola with his selfless performances out of position at left-back this season and though he is keen to give everything for England boss Gareth Southgate too, the possibility of flying home – and the risk of missing a match – has been discussed.
“Gareth has been fantastic. There’s nothing more important than family to me: family always comes first and always will. If I do have the opportunity to get back I will, but if not she’s tough, she’s a Yorkshire lass so she’ll deal with it.”
As a Bradford boy who plans to pack a box of Yorkshire tea for his trip to Russia, Delph is perfectly qualified for such a comment.
And although he does not know the gender of his new arrival he will be crossing his fingers for a football fan, given he is currently a minority of one in his own house.
“But I’ve got two daughters, a baby on the way and the missus – and they all hate football. They couldn’t care less. It’s hard to watch it with my family – it’s like an agreement we have ‘no football’.
“If I’m on holiday, I’m doing stuff with my girls, letting them paint my nails pink and all that stuff.”
As for on-field matters, Delph is ready to perform whatever role is asked of him.
“I’m a team player and I think the manager (Guardiola) values people like me, who pretty much put themselves last and put the team first,” he said.
“I played left-back as a young kid, but not many times and I played there probably one or two times under Gerard Houllier at Aston Villa.
“But wherever I’m asked to play. I’m all about the team, I’ve been that way since I was a really young guy, and I’ll continue to be that way throughout the rest of my career.”
“I was very close and not just Stoke, I think there were quite a few clubs that were interested and there were opportunities for me to leave,” said the 28-year-old.
“I worked so hard from a young age, a really young age. All the work that I put in when I was younger was for that moment, to get to a club like Manchester City. So to just give up on it and move on to a team where I was guaranteed to play, it didn’t sit right with me, I felt like I needed to give it one last go.”
