Special requests made by England stars to feel at home in their five-star Euro base this summer have been revealed.
Gareth Southgate’s men will land in Germany for Euro 2024 in the coming hours and will stay at the Weimarer Land Spa and Golf complex in Blankenhain, a town with a population of less than 7,000, for the duration of the tournament.
The luxury resort, which Mail Sport took an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour of last month, cost England around £850,000, beating out competition from the Netherlands and Austria, and features two Michelin-starred restaurants and a floor space of 2,500 square meters. spa known as ‘Lindentherme’.
Owner Matthias Grafe has also opened up about players’ requests to transform their experience.
When asked to reveal the main issue raised by the Three Lions, Grafe said image: ‘Most of the questions were about the air conditioning in the rooms, probably after the experience in Qatar. We had to modernize a room.
England to stay at Weimarer Land Span and Golf Resort (pictured) during Euro 2024
The five-star resort has three golf courses to keep players entertained during their free time.
Matthias Grafe (pictured) is the owner of the resort and has revealed special requests from players, with air conditioning and access to English television the main concerns.
‘We also made sure that English satellite television was broadcast in the rooms. We also covered the glass and windows so that the famous yellow press could not photograph the boys.’
Several English players enjoy a round of gold in their free time, and they will have plenty of opportunities to do so in Weimarer Land, which has three golf courses plus a paddle tennis court and even a robot called Robbie, who only speaks German, to serve. to the team and clear their plates.
Grafe confirmed that there will also be up to 35 chefs on hand to cater to the players’ needs, while the rooms will also receive a personal touch with family photos to be placed on the walls of each room.
“Here we have 35 chefs who prepare everything the English want according to their menu,” he continued.
‘I’m sure there will be burgers at some point. The rooms of the players, coaches and support staff are also decorated with personal items.
“For example, we receive family photographs and other personal items in advance, which we then use to decorate the rooms.”
The England team will have everything they need off the football pitch, but the complex is desperate to give them everything they need on it too, and the training surface on site will be of the highest quality.
“The English outfielder was with us a few weeks ago and said there was only one grass better than ours – his at Wembley,” Grafe said.
“And this is exactly the mixture that was sown, then scarified and maintained, also in consultation with the DFB, which was here before.”
England will get to work on the training ground this week ahead of their first Euro match against Serbia on Sunday, with the WAGs required to stay at a “safe distance”.
England will have access to high-quality training pitches, with grass approved by the Wembley staff.
Gareth Southgate and his players will soon get to work at their resort, with the WAGs kept at a “safe distance” to avoid a repeat of England’s stay in Germany for the 2006 World Cup.
Southgate has assured other senior people that they will have the opportunity to see the players, but is ready to assess when and how once the tournament begins.
The England manager wants to avoid a repeat of the national team’s last visit to Germany for a major tournament in 2006, when they stayed in the normally quiet spa town of Baden-Baden.
On that occasion, the WAGs generated as many headlines as the players, and Rio Ferdinand later admitted that “we became a kind of circus” after the team’s quarter-final exit on penalties to Portugal.
England will hope that doesn’t happen again this time and appear to have everything in place as they try to go one step further than three years ago, when they lost to Italy in the last Euro final at Wembley.