ShortList is supported by you, our amazing readers. When you click through the links on our site and make a purchase we may earn a commission. Learn more

Fenners' Top 5 World Cup Moments

Fenners' Top 5 World Cup Moments

Fenners' Top 5 World Cup Moments

It's fair to say that Sky Sports presenter and reporter John 'Fenners' Fendley is a fan of the World Cup. But, particularly, one way of viewing it.

"For me, the World Cup is sitting at home and watching it. I had an opportunity to maybe go out to Brazil and there was part of me that really loved the idea of being out there, at a World Cup in Brazil, but there's a big part of me that just likes going back to my childhood and being that little boy, and sitting at home and watching it on telly with a few of my mates round - even more so than going down to the pub. I like to go into World Cup hibernation for the whole tournament. I still struggle to convince my wife that I need to watch every game. It's just getting that across - it might be Chile v Croatia or whatever, but for me it's the World Cup - it's every 4 years, you need to get your head round it!"

In the latest of our weekly series as we approach Brazil '14, we spoke to John to discover his top 5 World Cup moments. Read on for memories from the '78, '82, '90 and '98 World Cups.

Fenners is helping Currys & PC World line-up the right tech for the summer of sport. Find out more at www.currys.co.uk and www.pcworld.co.uk

____________________________________

1. World Cup '78

"The first one I've gone for is the whole tournament of 1978. That was my first World Cup and I stayed at my auntie's that year, for some reason, in the summer. I was 9 and amazingly, I was allowed to stay up and watch all these games, which were all taking place at night. So you had that, and...everything that was going on was just the most magical thing that I'd ever seen, bearing in mind at that time we didn't have a lot of football on TV so it was kind of 'what, we can watch a game, and then another game, and then another game?!' The commentary, the sound of the commentary - the whole thing. It wasn't like football from another country, it was like football from another planet. Just things like the way the Argentinians laced their boots...my first taste of the World Cup. Obviously England weren't there, so I was kind of a Scotland fan - I'm a Liverpool fan so obviously Kenny Dalglish was there. It was a huge influence on me, that tournament - it laid the foundations for my love of the World Cup."





2. Brazil v Italy '82

"A game I watched at home - I ran home from the bus - it was Italy v Brazil in 82 in Spain and it was....if you'd never seen the World Cup and you were trying to explain it to someone what it was, this, for me, encapsulates what the World Cup is all about. Two massive nations, full of Brazilian flair and the Italian side full of great players - Tardelli and the rest - a bit of a beauty and the beast thing. I remember rushing home from school and my brother - who's a older than me - I got in to the house and the game had just started and he said, 'you need to go to the shop for me and get me some cigarettes' and I said, 'oh come on'...he was bigger than me and there was a threat of physical violence - just a headlock or dangle me over the bannisters...so I ran to the shop, got back and I'd actually missed the first 2 goals: Rossi and Socrates' equaliser. But I watched the rest of the game - Italy won 3-2, Rossi got a hat-trick and it was an amazing game, but I will never forgive my brother for forcing me to miss those first 2 goals just for the sake of 20 Benson & Hedges."





3. Tardelli's Goal In The '82 Final

"Number 3, is from the same tournament - it was the final, when Italy beat Germany. It was the goal by Tardelli to make it 2-0. If you look at the goal, Germany were pressing and they hit them on the counter-attack and they were kind of toying with the Germans which is always - as an English football fan - it's quite nice to see. And it fell to Tardelli and he kind of miscontrolled it, but he still got his shot away and across the 'keeper. It was a brilliant goal, but for me, it was all about that celebration. Just that moment of 'this is the greatest thing that is ever going to happen to me in my football career - probably in my life'. Just pure joy, emotion, tears welling up on his face as he ran and shouted. What I don't like about football - I can't stand choreographed celebrations - Roger Milla's little dance round the corner flag and Bebeto doing his little baby thing...you see it all the time now, it's all a bit too...I want people to get lost in the moment. When I play football on a Tuesday night, when I score - which is few and far between - I feel like Tardelli every time I score. So to actually score a goal in a World Cup Final - the goal that killed the game off, that raw emotion...it really was an amazing, magical World Cup moment."





4. David Platt Scoring Against Belgium in 1990

"1990 - I was out in Australia, staying with my sister who lives in Sydney - it wasn't the semi-final, it was David Platt's goal against Belgium. We were getting battered by Belgium really - I remember Scifo hit the post with a long-range shot...we certainly weren't dominating the game, we kind of hung on and it got into extra time, and I think there were 90 seconds left. And there was a moment when Gazza got the ball in his own half, did a little turn and went on a run and it was a snapshot of Gazza - we all know the snapshot of him crying and Lineker and all that - but that, to me, was him getting on the ball, being brave, trying to go on and affect the game. So he went on a run, got bundled over which led to the free-kick, which subsequently he floated in to the back post. Because of the finish, that ball seemed like a beautifully clipped free-kick when it was just put into an area, but the finish by David Platt....it was kind of that moment where, in a football match - when they brought the golden goal in, which I didn't like - it was the equivalent of that. It was like: 'that's it', the game is over. Even though it wasn't, you knew that was it, because there was just no time to recover. They all bundled on and Lineker did that little turn round and Bobby Robson started doing a little jig...I was sitting there thinking, 'we're going to penalties here' but then thinking, 'we've won, we're through' - those moments as an England fan are few and far between."





5. Sol Campbell's Disallowed Goal in 1998

"My last one was, I watched in a pub - going against the grain slightly I know - I was in Ladbroke Grove, and it was England v Argentina. The game itself - there were so many subplots, with Owen's goal and Beckham's sending-off and hanging on and going to penalties and missing penalties...but the moment I remember is Sol Campbell scoring/not scoring. If I'd been sitting at home, watching it on telly, I'd have known within 5 seconds that that goal had been ruled out. But, probably like the majority of the nation, I was off running around the pub thinking we'd won...and then realised - after literally about 20 seconds - that no, it's not a goal, and they're on the attack. It was completely the opposite of the David Platt feeling, having that feeling...if we'd done that against Argentina it would have been absolutely amazing. It was such a shame because I think that England team - we had Glenn Hoddle on the show the other week and we were talking about it, and he feels that that England were good enough to go a lot further in that tournament, and maybe even win it. It was just the massive high, to the sickening low, in a horrible 20 minutes in Ladbroke Grove."