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If England boss lookalike Neil Rowe had a pound every time someone chanted ‘Southgate you’re the one, you still turn me on’ at him, he’d be able to sack off his day job as a pilot
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Gareth Southgate lookalike asks England fans about Euro 2024
Fans in the stands at the England vs Serbia game might think they’re mingling with boss Gareth Southgate.
But it’s unlikely to be the real Three Lions manager drinking beers in the Gelsenkirchen crowd at halftime – and far more likely to be professional lookalike and airline pilot Neil Rowe, dressed in his identical M&S blue wool waistcoat.
The 49-year-old football superfan, from Surrey, has an uncanny resemblance to the famous England star – so much so, that pundit Gary Neville, 49, even mistook him for his close pal live on air during the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
Though, Neville wasn’t the first to do a double-take at Neil’s appearance. Back in 1994, the lookalike’s mates at Warwick University dubbed Southgate his ‘doppelganger’ when the Crystal Palace youngster appeared on Match of the Day.
Ever since, Neil has become oblivious to locals shouting, ‘Oi, Southgate’ in the pub and kids asking for selfies in the park. “Southgate, you’re the one, you still turn me on,” is still ringing in his ears from the Euro 2020 final at Wembley, when the crowd lifted him on their shoulders and chanted the Atomic Kitten lyrics on repeat.
He expects nothing less from the Euros this year and has laid out his iconic waistcoat, lucky Union Jack boxer shorts and red England FA socks ready for the game. Neil, who does lookalike gigs on the side of his day job, predicts a win for the country and thinks the score will be 2-1 England, with Jordan Pickford, Kieran Trippier and Marc Guéhi starting.
He also expects John Stones, Kyle Walker, Declan Rice, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Jude Bellingham, Phil Foden, Cole Palmer and Harry Kane to face Serbia as the starting XI. “We certainly have a squad that can win,” Neil told the Mirror. “I would have loved Maguire in there – he’s never let England or Gareth down – but he had an injury unfortunately.”
Neil doesn’t just think we’ll take home the first win, but the trophy. “Absolutely, it’s coming home,” he said. “I think we’ve got a good chance this year. We’ve got so close in the finals and semi-finals before, so it’s getting over the last hurdle. But we have a decent squad. I think we can beat Serbia and Slovenia. Denmark will give us a good game – maybe that will be a draw.”
Southgate has faced controversy for not playing Jack Grealish, James Maddison and Marcus Rashford, but Neil supports him. “You can’t please everybody,” he said. “It’s tough. They didn’t necessarily have good seasons, due to form or injury. He’s chosen players that have been playing well for the season instead. I think this will be our big chance. We can win it.”
The football fan expects France, Italy and Spain to be our hardest oppositions but said England “has to stay hopeful”. As for the most goals scored, Neil said: “Kane would be too obvious. I think Bellingham will be the top goal-scorer for England. He will be level for goals with his new teammate, Mbappé.”
Neil will be watching all of the group games live in Germany and plans to get tickets for future rounds if we make it. “Southgate deserves this win and the country deserves it. He has done so well to manage four major tournaments, it’s a great achievement,” he said. The pilot has also praised him to his face, having met Gareth three times in person.
He said the England boss is a “top bloke” after speaking to him at two World Cups, in 2010 and 2014, and on a flight travelling to Portugal in 2017. “He was a lovely guy, just like he is on TV, and always happy to chat,” Neil said. “We have banter about me looking like him. The third time we met, he tapped me on the shoulder and said, ‘Hi Neil, small world’. He’s so friendly.”
Being a Liverpool fan, Neil is relieved Southgate wasn’t appointed Man United manager – or he’d have to “think twice about continuing the work”. But he won’t be too gutted when the boss eventually retires. “I haven’t shaved my beard in quite a while now because I need to look like him to do any work. So when he finally steps down, I’ll have a good shave,” he chuckled.
Beard or not, Neil will forever be known as the Southgate lookalike. “All through the Euros in 1996, I was getting people coming up to me. Kids were asking for my autograph in McDonald’s,” he said. “I go on a lot of cricket tours with the Barmy Army and wherever we are in the world – whether that’s Sri Lanka, Australia or the Caribbean – I get called Southgate.”
It was Gareth’s first tournament as England’s manager in 2016 when Neil first felt inspired to pick up a replica waistcoat from M&S and wear it to the England vs Sweden game in Russia “for a laugh”. “At halftime, back home on the telly, Gary Lineker said in the commentary, ‘There’s Gareth Southgate hanging out with the fans’. It zoomed in on me and he said, ‘It can’t be’,” Neil recalled.
“I went viral after that. A BBC journalist interviewed me and it suddenly took off.” Neil did his first lookalike job in 2018 and has experienced some pretty incredible moments since then. “I’ve just been in a music video with John Barnes. He was a hero of mine as a kid, so to meet him was incredible,” Neil said of the former manager.
Neil has a wardrobe full of matching outfits for jobs, including Southgate’s polka dot tie and cream polo neck. “I only bring them out for Gareth moments,” Neil said. “I was dressed up at Wembley the other day and lots of dads wanted me to have photos with their kids. They were bewildered that Southgate was there 45 minutes before kickoff.”
But his spitting image doesn’t always come with perks – in Russia in 2018, Neil was escorted out of the Red Square by tourist police after he was mistaken for the real Southgate. He’s hoping that won’t happen in Berlin. “It’s on my bucket list to see England lift the trophy. We’ve got the team and manager to do it this time,” he said, full of hope.
