James Milner has revealed he was in a scary chase with Phil Jagielka when England were in Brazil for the 2014 FIFA World Cup. The Liverpool midfielder claims the two were walking to the team hotel when they were chased by a group of men and feared getting kidnapped.
Milner was on Ben Foster’s Amazon Prime show when he recalled the incident in the South American country, where they escaped in a car.
The duo were helped by their teammates, who had left the golf course before them but had not reached the hotel.
Milner added that it was the scariest incident of his life and said:
“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 and the hotel was literally there, you could see it. Me and Jags said we’ll finish these last two off and then we’ll come. So you’ve gone off 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’.”
Milner went on to reveal that the decision to walk back to the hotel took a turn for the worse:
“Obviously we have been told you can’t really leave the hotel. So we have come out the gate and the gate has shut behind us. We’re walking down the street and we’ve turned around and there is a group of guys. We’re glancing and we’re walking a bit quicker and they’re walking a bit quicker.”
He added:
“Then they start jogging, so we start running and we’re like, ‘we’re in trouble here.’ So we start sprinting, we can out-run them. So we’re running down and the next thing, a car pulls up next to us. So I’m like, we’re getting kidnapped here, it’s game over. The door slides open, mid-run and it’s the boys, the security and it’s “quick, get in!” We jumped in, on the move, back to the hotel.”
England went winless in the 2014 FIFA World Cup
England, under Roy Hodgson, had one of the worst displays at the FIFA World Cup. The Three Lions finished bottom of their group table after losing to Italy and Uruguay while drawing against Costa Rica in the final match.
England have done better in the two FIFA World Cups since then. They were in the semifinals of the 2018 edition while making it to the quarterfinals of the 2022 FIFA World Cup.