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Prince William Reveals Why He Couldn't Cheer Too Loudly at Prince George's First Soccer Match

Prince William revealed why he had to keep his composure as he watched his favorite soccer team alongside his family last year.

In his documentary about men's mental health that aired in the U.K. on Thursday, William chats to the CEO of the Football Association, who had just seen pictures of William in the stands with son Prince George, daughter Princess Charlotte and wife Kate Middleton when Aston Villa took on Norwich City in October 2019.

Aston Villa scored a goal, but the family were watching among supporters of Norwich, as the club is not far from their country home in Norfolk, Anmer Hall.

"Yeah, I saw you celebrating. Great one to get the kids to," Mark Bullingham, the CEO of the Football Association told the royal dad.

"I wasn’t celebrating — that was the problem. I was sat with all the Norwich fans," the prince, 37, replied. "So George was doing my bit of celebrating for me."

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Of course, this isn’t the first time George has shown he’s already growing into quite the soccer fan.

In addition to kicking around a soccer ball with Charlotte last summer, George smiled and showed off his missing tooth while sporting an official England National Soccer Team jersey in two of his most birthday portraits.

James Whatling/MEGA Princess Charlotte and Prince George

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The conversation came as Prince William was filmed meeting some of the heads of the Football Association, the English Football League and the country’s top division, the Premier League about his Heads Up mental health campaign.

The campaign is at the heart of the program which followed the prince for a year as he took his message around clubs from the grassroots of the game to the elite clubs and players of the Premier League.

Eddie Keogh for FA/REX/Shutterstock Prince William

William has been concerned about the extent of male suicide and men’s difficulty in opening up about their wellbeing and is using the vehicle of the most popular sport to drive home his message. “Most me like football, involve themselves in football, but men seem to have a real issue when it comes to mental health and opening up and being able to talk about stuff,” he opens up the show saying. "And we felt football was a really good way to be able to reach some of those hard to reach people, to get them to talk about their feelings, to not let things get to breaking point.”

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The BBC program, Football, Prince William and Our Mental Health, is available on the BBC iplayer.