There are several members of football’s elite who could take exception to their portrayals in Dear England, a new play at the National Theatre about Gareth Southgate’s transformation of the England team, but Southgate himself is not one of them.
Softly-spoken, thoughtful and unassuming, Southgate is not an easy figure to play, but Joseph Fiennes’ portrayal of him as a patient and decent revolutionary, haunted by his penalty miss at Euro ‘96, rings true.
