“It got to 5-0 up and it just hit me – an epiphany: ‘England are going to the win the World Cup this year. You get the tattoo and they will bring it home.’ And that’s exactly what I did,” Richardson said at his local pub in Kippax, near Leeds.

The tattoo on his belly is of the World Cup trophy with ‘England 2018 World Cup winners’ written across it.

England fans know all about misplaced optimism. Their one World Cup win in 1966 has been followed by decades of disappointment.

Still, England beat Panama 6-1 and face Colombia on Tuesday for a place in the last eight. Richardson, 32, will be watching in his local bar.

“We’ll see who’s stupid won’t we come two weeks … When we get to the final everybody around here can build a little shrine around me. You can come and touch the tattoo or come and say a prayer to it,” he told the BBC.

“The premonition – they’ll say: ‘He told us it’d happen. He went and got it done. They won.’ So if you need lottery numbers or you want to know who’s winning the raffle next week, come and see me and I’ll sort you out.”