BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts hello, I'm Lauren Laverne and this is the Desert Island Discs podcast.
Every week I ask my guests to choose the eight tracks, book and luxury they'd want to take with them if they were cast away to a desert island.
And for rights reasons, the music is shorter than the original broadcast.
I hope you enjoy listening.
My castaway this week is the former footballer and manager Gareth Southgate.
He recently called time on the biggest job in English Football.
For eight years and 102 games, he has carried the hopes and heartache of millions of fans, not to mention the England men's team, on his perfectly tailored shoulders.
Nobody has represented England more than him, first as a player, then as a coach, as a leader.
He distinguished himself by what he did and how he did it.
The nation's most successful manager in the modern game, he took his team to the World cup semi finals for the first time in 28 years and was the first England manager to make two major tournament finals at the Euros.
He also changed the culture of the national team.
In a 2021 open letter, Dear England, he articulated a new kind of England identity, a patriotism founded on team spirit and inclusivity.
It struck a nerve that pandemic year.
Newspapers carried it in full, millions shared it online and it inspired a critically acclaimed stage play.
Not bad for a lad who started out on a YTS scheme at Crystal Palace.
Croydon College are very proud and so is he.
He says, as a proud Englishman, it's been the honour of my life to play for England and to manage England.
It has meant everything to me and I have given it my all.
Gareth Southgate, welcome to Desert Island Discs.
Thank you very much.