For England, 2006 was supposed to be the year everything finally fell into place. On the eve of the World Cup in Germany, the so-called Golden Generation stood just one day away from launching another attempt to end four decades of disappointment and bring football’s biggest prize home.
While Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard and their teammates may have been lying awake under the pressure of expectation at their luxury castle resort in the Black Forest, their partners were already beginning a month-long party around 10 miles away.
Coleen Rooney, then known as McLoughlin, and Alex Gerrard—later the wives of two of England’s most prominent players—had gathered at Garibaldi’s in Baden-Baden. The German spa town bar would soon become the centre of the drama surrounding the England WAGs during the tournament.
Stories have endured about the vast quantities of champagne, cocktails and spritzers consumed by the England players’ wives and girlfriends during their famously extravagant nights out. A relentless paparazzi presence ensured that many of those moments were captured and splashed across the newspapers.
Garibaldi’s was the main meeting point for much of the group. Daily Mail Sport has now seen a receipt from one of their evenings there, dated June 9, 2006—the night before England opened Group B with a scrappy 1-0 victory over Paraguay.
Two decades later, the bill has brought that night back into focus after a waitress named Leslie found it while clearing out her loft. The discovery revived memories of serving Coleen, Alex and Joanne Beckham, the sister of David Beckham.
Daily Mail Sport has been shown the receipt from the WAGs’ night out at Garibaldi’s on June 9, 2006
Alex Curran (middle left), Joanne Beckham and Coleen Rooney (far right) are believed to have spent €643.50—equivalent to around €1,000 today—on the eve of the 2006 World Cup
‘I can’t believe I’ve kept it all these years,’ Leslie told Daily Mail Sport. ‘My daughter thinks it’s hilarious that I still have it.’
The receipt records a total of €643.50, a sum that would be worth approximately €1,000, or £846.50, today when adjusted for an average annual inflation rate of 2.23 per cent over the past 20 years.
The trio ordered seven 750ml bottles of Moët & Chandon Champagne. Each bottle would have provided roughly five or six glasses, making it the most substantial item on an already eye-catching bill.
The order also included nine vodka Red Bulls, six Radeberger pilsners and 12 assorted spirit shots. Bacardi, sambuca and tequila were among the drinks served, with the shots alone costing €72.
That evening proved to be only the beginning. The WAGs quickly became one of the tournament’s biggest talking points, even as Sven-Goran Eriksson’s England campaign ended in disappointment with a penalty shootout defeat by Portugal in the quarter-finals. Their antics soon became part of football folklore.
The 2006 tournament is widely regarded as the moment the WAG phenomenon truly exploded. Back in Britain, coverage of the players’ partners often overshadowed the team itself. As England struggled to produce convincing performances, attention increasingly turned to what was happening in Baden-Baden.
Daily Mail Chief Sports Writer Oliver Holt watched the spectacle unfold from close range. Like many reporters covering the World Cup, he was staying at the Brenners Park Hotel alongside the players’ families. He later called the arrangement a ‘bizarre and accidental social experiment’—one he believed should never, and ‘will never’, happen again.
The extraordinary setup had not been planned. Journalists had reserved rooms at the prestigious hotel on the edge of Baden-Baden six months before the tournament. But the Football Association and Nancy Dell’Olio, the then wife of manager Eriksson, subsequently chose the same venue for the players’ wives and girlfriends and made a block booking.
Coleen Rooney, formerly McLoughlin, pictured with beers during England’s 1-0 win over Paraguay the day after her late-night visit to Garibaldi’s
Victoria Beckham (left), Coleen Rooney (middle), Louise Owen (second right) and Elen Rivas, Frank Lampard’s then fiancée (far right), were among the WAGs based in Baden-Baden
When the group realised reporters were staying there too, attempts were made to cancel the journalists’ reservations. Hotel management refused to get involved in the sporting dispute, leaving both groups under the same roof—and setting the stage for the frenzy that followed.
Victoria Beckham, Cheryl Cole, Abbey Clancy, Alex Gerrard and Coleen Rooney became fixtures in the headlines. Their designer sunglasses, statement belts, high-profile nights out and lavish shopping trips made the England WAGs just as newsworthy as the players they had travelled to support.
Just two days after their first night out on the lash in Baden-Baden, the WAGs were papped copping heaps upon heaps of designer clothes, sunglasses and shoes. German tabloids reported at the time that the combined total of the spree was a whopping €80,000 (£69,310).
Cameras followed them absolutely everywhere during the tournament, with Victoria splashed on pages of the newspapers seemingly every single day that summer. It proved to be a ‘bad distraction’ to the players, as former Three Lions midfielder Frank Lampard described it.
‘That could have been dealt with better, looking back,’ Lampard told FootballJoe in 2024. ‘The media just lapped it up, din’t they? And it took away from a group that was trying to prepare to try and win a tournament.’
Rio Ferdinand, who played at the heart of the defence with John Terry for England, also famously launched a scathing attack against the wives and girlfriends ‘culture’ two years after England had been sent packing by Portugal.
(L-R, middle row) Brooklyn Beckham, Cheryl Tweedy and Victoria Beckham celebrate during England’s 2006 World Cup campaign
‘If I’m honest, we became a bit of a circus in terms of the whole Wag situation,’ he said back in 2008. ‘It seemed like there was a big show around the whole England squad. It was like watching a theatre unfolding and football almost became a secondary element to the main event.
‘People were worrying more about what people were wearing and where they were going out, rather than the England football team. That then transposed itself into the team.’
The ‘WAG culture’ Ferdinand spoke about is no more. All we saw of the new cohort during the most recent disappointment in the US, Mexico and Canda this summer was them smiling in the stands and supporting their partners. The chaos of Baden-Baden will never be repeated.
