The 2006 World Cup was the golden age of the Wag, says Eilidh Hargreaves in Tatler. “Genuine star power” collided with a glamorous, fame-hungry group led by Victoria Beckham, Cheryl Cole and Coleen Rooney. While the other nations’ media focused on the football, the British paparazzi followed these women through the “sleepy German town” of Baden-Baden as they tottered from bar to bar in denim miniskirts. “Things got wild,” says one insider. Night after night, the Wags could be found drunkenly dancing on tables; only Posh would check out early, wanting photographers to catch her “solo exit” for the optimum front-page shot.
“A million rumours swirled” about their extravagance. Did Victoria pack 60 pairs of Versace bug-eye sunglasses? Did Coleen fly her own “tanning expert” along? It was up to the “Queen Mother of Wags” – Nancy Dell’Olio, then partner of England’s manager Sven-Göran Eriksson – to keep standards up. “Glamour is more than what you’re wearing,” was her mantra. “It’s an attitude, it’s how you act.” Under her watchful eye, the partners “ended up becoming as big a story as the men” – much to the displeasure of Eriksson and the players, who were “very irritated” by the whole circus.