108: Joe Allen, Wales, Panini UEFA Euro 2020 Official Licensed Sticker Album, Tournament Edition

Prior to the Reformation the number of holy days, or holidays, in Britain is believed to have numbered somewhere between forty and sixty per year. As well as a church service, where a majority illiterate population would hear some Latin and be told they were off to Hell, these days were often accompanied by festivals and public gatherings. Sometimes a kickabout broke out with various forms of ‘mob football’ played across the country generally involving transporting something vaguely spherical from one village to another with church gates or doors serving as goals. The injury rate was such that both Edward II and Edward IV attempted to ban the game in order to ensure their kingdom had enough blokes left for their difficult second legs against Scotland and the Lancastrians respectively.

Up until the nineteenth century the aforementioned spherical object was often an inflated pig’s bladder before more uniform leather creations began to be used as the game became codified and expanded. Similar amounts of leather were used to make the heavy boots players wore until synthetic, and more water resistant, materials became the standard in the 1980s. From whatever angle you approach it that’s a large number of animals harmed in the development of the beautiful game and that’s before West Ham United’s Kurt Zouma decided to boot his cat in 2022. Perhaps with this in mind several footballers have lent their star power to campaigns for animal protection including Chris Smalling, Tim Howard and Darren Randolph. One former Premier League star meanwhile has taken a more active role in animal protection by opening his home to several chickens at the end of their commercial careers.

2016 was a big year for Welsh midfielder Joe Allen. The Red Dragons reached their first ever European Championships finals and took the tournament by storm. Allen’s tireless efforts in midfield helped Wales overpower the likes of Slovakia, Northern Ireland and Belgium en route to the semi-finals and he was named in the team of the tournament alongside compatriot Aaron Ramsey. Having been consigned to the fringes of a Liverpool side which reached the League Cup and Europa League finals it was little surprise that his international exploits attracted suitors and he moved to Stoke City for £13m upon his return from France. He found the net five times for his new club before the turn of the year to arrest a worrying start to the season and establish the Potters in their traditional mid-table slot. Much of this pales in comparison, however, to his front cover appearance on Chicken & Egg magazine.

Allen’s wife Lacey initially started the family’s commitment for rehousing old chickens and, by the time of the magazine shoot, had a flock of sixteen under their guardianship. By all accounts Allen had only agreed to the piece when his wife told him the magazine rarely got beyond the vets’ waiting room but the cover soon spread around. In some ways it actually removed some of the pressure from his shoulders after the ever hyperbolic Brendan Rodgers labelled him “the Welsh Xavi” in the Alan Partridge-esque ‘Being: Liverpool’ documentary. Rodgers had brought Allen to Anfield from his previous club Swansea City in 2012, the same year in which the midfielder had represented Great Britain in the Olympics, and it was in South Wales where Allen started and ended his career having helped the Swans to the Premier League from League One. In total Allen played 583 club games and earned 77 caps for Wales before retiring at the end of last season.

Football began, in Britain at least, as a communal and agricultural game before the combination of Protestantism and industrialisation drove it into the urban centres and public schools of the nineteenth century. Some modern footballers have got in touch with nature with Vinnie Jones pursuing sustainable practices on his Sussex farm, Tony Hibbert breeding carp and Darren Ward helping to run his family’s cattery. The actual Xavi loves a bit of mushroom foraging (not a euphemism) by all accounts. Joe Allen found the comparisons with the Spanish midfield maestro unhelpful during his career but, besides the metronomic passing and international heroics, perhaps the pair had more in common than he realised.