This is Harrogate: The footballers’ town that is learning to love football

“Pretty much everyone in Harrogate knows where Gareth Southgate goes for coffee. Somewhere less refined, less discreet, less, well, Harrogate, this sort of information might be regarded as an open secret. In this corner of North Yorkshire, it is closer to common knowledge, the sort of thing that it would be a little gauche to discuss. The former England manager, now a freshly minted Knight of the Realm, is a familiar sight at the cafe in question, a bustling, sunlit spot not far from the town’s famous Royal Baths. … His other regulars disagree, just a little, on how often Southgate visits. Micah Richards, the ex-England international turned barrel-chested television personality, puts it at ‘every other day’. Danny Mills, the former Leeds and Manchester City defender, thinks that might be a bit of an exaggeration. Both, though, accept that Southgate’s presence and their own is sufficiently familiar to be unremarkable. …”
NY Times/The Athletic