Former England goalkeeper Ben Foster has revealed the poor treatment he received from ex-England boss Fabio Capello during the Italian’s time in charge of The Three Lions.
Foster explained how, during an international meet-up under Capello, his wife gave birth to the couple’s second child. With the international break close to finishing and England having just one training session and a friendly left to play, he asked the Italian’s permission to go to be with his wife for the birth.
“I had to go and speak to the manager and straight away he just said: ‘well, we’ve got training in an hour’,” Foster told JaackMaate’s Happy Hour podcast. “Eventually he said ‘yeah, all right, go”.
“That was a bit of a spark and immediately made me get my back up a little bit.”
The 37-year-old Watford goalkeeper continued, explaining that he missed the birth by around ten minutes, but then received a call explaining that Capello wanted him to return to the squad, and he was told that he was going to play the second half of the following night’s game.
Foster and his wife agreed to his return, excited to get another cap, albeit in a friendly, only to be surprised on the night of the game.
“The first half finished so I was getting ready, but nobody said anything to me,” Foster said. “I thought that was a bit weird.
“The game kicked off again for the second half so was thinking that I’d get maybe ten or 15 minutes.
“I didn’t get one minute of football. Straight away I thought ‘done’. He didn’t even say anything, he didn’t even acknowledge the birth. At that point I thought that I had just had a baby, I’ve got two kids under the age of one. So [I thought] ‘that’ll do it for me’.
“I thought ‘I’m not coming to play for you again’. It was nothing to do with England. The manager ruined it for me, so I said that I wasn’t coming back for him again and it wasn’t until Roy Hodgson took over [that I returned].
“They were going to the World Cup and it was a no-brainer because it was Roy Hodgson.”
