sport news Jack Grealish reveals how Home Alone and ice cream eased his World Cup ... trends now
Before talk turns to one big England game and Manchester City’s pursuit of three trophies, Jack Grealish needs to discuss 16 scoops of ice cream.
The conversation had started in a routine manner. Grealish had been asked how he had banished the disappointment of losing to France in the World Cup quarter-finals and he began to explain how three days in Dubai were followed by five days in New York.
Then, in that way of his, he smiled mischievously and there was a twinkle in his eye. Grealish is always prepared to go off at an unexpected tangent when the mood takes hold, so here he was revealing, with boyish enthusiasm, how a Home Alone experience lifted the post-Qatar gloom.
Christmas isn’t Christmas for Grealish unless he’s watched Home Alone 2: Lost in New York ‘four of five times at least’ and here he was, retracing the footsteps of Macaulay Culkin’s character Kevin McAllister, feeling like he was an extra on set.
‘I stayed in the same hotel!’ Grealish said, referring to the iconic Plaza on the corner of Central Park. ‘You could get some mad room service, like 16 scoops of ice cream! It’s what he got in the film! I love that film, man. Someone had told me about it (the tour), so we went round Central Park.
Jack Grealish has revealed how a Home Alone tour helped him get over his World Cup pain
Grealish travelled to New York to revisit the classic locations from the hit 1992 Christmas film
Grealish hoped to put the disappointment of England's World Cup exit to France behind him
‘I never realised how much stuff had been filmed there... I felt like a right little tourist! I was in the back of the (horse-drawn) carriage; every now and again someone would say, “I swear that’s Jack Grealish!” So I was saying, “Mate! Quick! Speed up!” I loved it, it was a little bucket list moment.’
That ice cream, though, didn’t seem like the best idea 48 hours after he had returned back to Manchester. The domestic season resumed with City hosting Liverpool in the Carabao Cup, a tie that he assumed would take place without his involvement given there hadn’t been too many gym visits.
‘I just felt I needed a little break,’ he explained. ‘I went back into train on the Wednesday and I thought, “There’s no chance I’ll be involved”. Then, in the 70th minute, he (Pep Guardiola) says, “Jack, you’re going on!” I was like, “****ing hell!”
