Liverpool star James Milner recalls how he almost got ‘kidnapped’ at World Cup – ‘it’s game over’

Lewis Oldham
Liverpool veteran Milner

Liverpool midfielder James Milner has recalled a remarkable story that almost resulted in him being “kidnapped” at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

Milner was part of Roy Hodgson’s England squad at the 2014 World Cup.

Some have moaned about England’s recent showings at major tournaments. But these people must not remember how they were under Hodgson in Brazil.

Admittedly, England had a tough group as they battled for a spot in the knockout stages with Uraguay, Italy and Costa Rica.

The Three Lions only picked up a single point as they were sent home just after they unpacked their bags.

England were not in Brazil for long, but Milner still managed to come close to being kidnapped near the team hotel.

Milner noted that the terrifying incident started with him playing golf with ex-Everton defender Phil Jagielka in sight of their hotel.

They ended up playing longer than the other England players so they had to walk home on their despite them being told by security that they “can’t really leave the hotel”.

The Liverpool veteran then recalled that he and Jagielka had to “outrun” their potential kidnappers.

“We went for a round of golf and we couldn’t quite get the holes in, and I think we were in the middle of the back nine,” Milner told Ben Foster for Amazon Prime.

“The hotel was literally there, you could see it. I think you boys played as well and you finished in front of us, me and Jags said ‘alright we’ll finish these last two off and then we’ll come.’

“So you’ve gone back and I think the car was going to come back for us. I said to the guy ‘we’ll leave the buggies here, and then we’ll just walk back’. Obviously we’ve been told we can’t really leave the hotel.

“We’ve come out the gate, the gate has shut behind us, we’re walking down the street and turn round and there’s a group of guys. We’re glancing and we’re walking a bit quicker, and they’re walking a bit quicker.

“Then they start jogging, so we start running and we’re like ‘we’re in trouble here.’ We’re sprinting down, we can outrun them. Next thing, car pulls up to us so I’m like ‘we’re getting kidnapped here, it’s game over.’

“Door slides open mid-run, it’s the boys, the security shouting ‘quick get in!’, jumped in, on the move, back to the hotel.”

We can’t really blame incidents like this for England’s poor performance in Brazil, but it certainly cannot have helped that the players were seemingly walking around fearing that something terrible could happen.

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