The German embassy in London wished England “all the best” for the final. “Football is a simple game. Twenty-two men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans English always win,” it joked on social media.
Mrs von der Leyen would be expected to support Spain. It is traditional for the EU executive to claim national sporting victories of its members as triumphs for the EU.
However, Mrs von der Leyen has an anglophile streak, which was undimmed by her experience of the Brexit negotiations.
She spent a year as a student living in London in the late 1970s. She enrolled at the LSE in 1978 under the fake name Rose Ladson and lived in Earl’s Court.
The alias was necessary because her father was governor of Lower Saxony and families of politicians were being targeted at the time by the Left-wing Baader-Meinhof Gang.
Jacek Rostowski, who lived in the same building and was later deputy prime minister of Poland, said: “She was having a good time and would come back fairly late.”
He described her as “bouncy” and with an unfortunate habit of forgetting to close the door properly when she came home.
‘Proud and patriotic’
Mrs von der Leyen was reported to be a fan of the burgeoning punk scene in London with a particular fondness for The Buzzcocks.
The Bolton punks are best known for their 1978 hit Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn’t’ve).
“As anyone who knew me at the time will tell you, I spent more time in Soho bars and Camden record stores than I did reading books,” Mrs von der Leyen said in a speech at the LSE in January 2020.
“I immersed myself in this melting pot of cultures, traditions and music. And I truly fell in love with this city and this country,” she said.
“This country, strong-willed, open-minded and big-hearted. Proud and patriotic. Kind and generous in spirit. Full of traditions and contradictions.,”
In the speech she urged a new beginning in the relationship between the UK and EU after Brexit.
Last week, she spoke to Sir Keir Starmer about greater cooperation between the UK and EU after Labour’s victory.