Sing when you win: the 20 best football songs – they’re in the crowd! | | Music

20 Rod Stewart – Touchline (2021)

Ah, fathers and sons and football. Here, Rod breaks down in tears remembering how his father cheered him on from the touching line: a basic but sweet and heartfelt song. Even Rod once told me that he likes to scold his own son on the touchline, because he doesn’t follow.

19. Sultans of Ping FC – Give Him the Ball (With a Yard of Grass) (1993)

Pop and football are like today’s heroes and tomorrow’s ghosts. In February 1993, Nigel Clough was the handsome captain of a struggling Nottingham Forest team; The Sultans of Ping FC were an unusual Irish indie band. But he caught the beauty of Clough: “Give him a ball and a circle of space / He will give you a move with divine grace.”

18. Heavy Drinking – Love on the Terraces (Mk III) (1982)

The Norwich post-punks were desperate for a football reminder – see also The Spirit of ’66 and Bobby Moore Was Innocent – but they won the most with the crazy story of a girl who meets boys as fists start flying in the crowded arena: “They bought me Bovril / Stole my heart.”

17. Genesis – Match of the Day (1977)

A real surprise is the 1977 EP Spot the Pigeon, which was rejected – it’s not about the attackers. Perhaps because it sounds like football in the way that public schoolboys see it most at home and rugger: it can sound like an appeal to fans, players, match officials and club staff all in one song. Fun for its time.

16. Los Campesinos! – Everything To Beat A Divorce (Three Lions) (2011)

Indeed Los Campesinos! It can turn football into an emotional earthquake: what’s the difference between England losing again and your relationship ending? Nothing, according to Gareth David. There is always hope until the final whistle.

15. Aitch – Business (ft Avelino) (2025)

There is not a lot of rap specifically about football: it is more common for players to download names, comparing the skills or control of the rapper. But fair play to that No to go back in time – “Lord shit, when the clock strikes / I’m Alex Ferguson … With his head wrapped like a bandage around Teddy Sheringham.”

14. Half Man Half Biscuit – Swerving the Checkatrade (2018)

Every big football fan knows the special difficulties of the game in the third round, against the fourth opponents. A game where you always lose, and it always rains, and you still feel like you have to go. Half Man Half Biscuit, however, found one good reason for missing a memorable game in the Checkatrade Trophy: love.

13. Danger Juice – For Him (2022)

The women’s soccer league has not yet created its own music industry – although interestingly there are already AI songs to shout out Latin players – but it has released one of the best “official” songs. The Welsh FA have teamed up with Cardiff rapper Juice Menace to release a fun song for women to join the game. He’s more Wu-Tang Clan than World Cup Willie.

12. Barmy Army – Billy Bonds MBE (1989)

Adrian Sherwood and the On-U Sound crew pay homage to the West Ham legend through dub reggae, samples from the Upton Park crowd, game commentary and – ironically – a bit of American TV news on the great man. It was from the album – The English Disease – of football-themed electronica and dub.

Brief descriptions of Burnden Park, The Den and Craven Cottage, descriptions of the surroundings, tours, price details and beer ratings. On Millwall: “Welcome to The Den, London South East 14. Don’t believe everything you read or hear. We’re not animals, we’re people. Our support is loyal. Their zeal only leads to violence because of the fierce provocation.” Indiepop as public service.

Peter Knowles of Wolves was one of the most exciting young strikers in English football when, at the start of the 1969/70 season, he announced that he had become a Jehovah’s Witness. After eight games of the season he stopped playing; the ball was over. His story was told with great interest Billy Braggthe string section adds dignity.

9. Judas – Number 10 (2010)

The number 10 is the most respected of all football shirts – the number of Pelé, Baggio, Bergkamp – and 10 the great Roma, Francesco Totti, was the head of the Italian musicians who broke the single, shaking like T Rex and shaking like Slade. Released in 2010, it looks like they recorded it with the intention of sending it back in time to be played on stadium PAs in 1973.

8. Animal Crossing – Goalkeeper (2017)

Short of the sweeper’s analysis against the shot-stopper, sympathetic to the lone player on the field and, in this song, the most important: “You got to be thankful tonight / He’s got your rope, you’re a wandering kite.”

7. The Hitchers – Strachan (1997)

All you want to do is watch Leeds go to the 1991/92 title, led by the former Scotland captain – “The air is getting thick / Into the box Strachan’s hit” – but that’s not what your girl wants: “She waited for the match to start / Started a fight with me.” You can see why it was a favorite of John Peel.

6. The Real Sounds – Dynamos vs Tornados (1986)

A well-made song by Spotify, because unlike the original vinyl, the title does not give a final score. If you’ve ever wanted to hear a 13 minute cry thanks catch up on all the commentary – including pre-match and team announcements – on Zimbabwe’s most important sports, this is your channel.

5. Youth Teflon – Marcus Rashford (2017)

The dark and dangerous rapper’s song of 2017 gave Marcus Rashford as an inspiration – not to footballers, but to young salesmen who have passed through the gang. Rashford and the kids are pushing forward. But you also need your Anthony Martials and your Ashley Youngs.

4. Richard Dawson – Two Halves (2019)

The great geordie songwriter has one of his best songs on Two Halves, a detailed account of a children’s football game – “These fools from the King’s Priory are chasing us.” It’s unfortunate, but nothing that can’t be replaced by going to a Chinese takeaway or a chippy on the way home.

3. AJ Tracey – Fake 9 (2017)

Thiago Silva, TOO Tracey He only talked about football, but here is the whole story. Because Tracey is a liar nine, an actor who can be anywhere. It’s also funny: “My whole team is on fire / white gear, look at the girl admiring it / I was holding a line like Puyol / Bet you thought I was going to say Dier.”

2. Kirsty MacColl – England 2 Colombia 0 (1999)

It is 26 June 1998, and in a London pub, a woman met a man. And behind Darren Anderton and David Beckham scoring, he builds a false platform that deceives him, until he comes out and realizes his mistake. “Now it’s England two, Colombia nil / And I know how Colombians feel.”

1. The Fall – Kicker Conspiracy (1983)

Not the best football song, but one of the best songs of the Fall: an unforgettable song that blows a lot of noise, with difficult verses that criticized English football in the early 80s through the prism of Mark E Smith: “Satanic J Hill” on TV and “Marble Milichip” running the Football Association with the sole purpose of removing mature players.

At a time when stadiums are being destroyed – the video was filmed at Turf Moor, Burnley’s home – and football violence is common (“Supporters! Remember, you are outside! Remember, the police are tough!”), Smith also saw how the game could endure the demands of the rich: “Their guest is the Eurostate magnate / Corporate-ulent”. The “old boy”, meanwhile, is waiting for the bus, where he “talks to himself in the back, upstairs”.

The game of the world ceases to be a game, instead it becomes a dystopia, a mass of evil passions without any purpose except to bedevil us all. It helps that Smith’s anger is focused on what, at the time, music was more accessible than ever: weird and wrong, but familiar music.