“I’ve got it right,” says former England defender Sol Campbell.
Sol Campbell stands by his claim he was not made England captain because of his colour.
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The former Tottenham and Arsenal centre half, who won 73 international caps, claimed in his autobiography he would have been “England captain for more than 10 years” had he been white.
A host of senior figures from the game including Sven-Goran Eriksson, Graham Taylor, Ian Wright, Paul Ince, Stuart Pearce and John Barnes have dismissed Campbell’s comments but the 39-year-old insists he ‘got it right’.
“If I was white, my chances of captaining England would have been definitely enhanced,” Campbell told the Evening Standard.
“Look at it this way. Take an African country which has a kid who’s white. He grows up to be a wonderful player and wants to be captain. I can understand it might not sit easy with the majority black people.”
“It’s their prerogative,” he says of the various people to have rejected his claims. “They’ve got their feelings. I’ve got mine. That’s it.”
And, as proof, he refers to the FA preferring Michael Owen as captain.
“Michael was a fantastic player, a great centre-forward, but captain material? I captained most of my clubs. I totally understand there are different characters. I was very vocal on the pitch and, as captain, that is how I wanted people to see me. But Michael Owen was quiet off and on the pitch. I just couldn’t understand. Obviously his face fitted more than mine. It’s as simple as that.”
Campbell insisted, however, that he had not said he would be England captain for ten years.
“I said, within my 10-year career, I should have captained an England side many more times than I did. People took the 10-year thing too literally, read too much into it and were too quick to comment on it.”