Strictly Come Dancing winner Karen Carney has revealed the unusual place where ITV World Cup pundits do their team bonding: the gym. The former Lioness is currently in New York working as a pundit for ITV during the World Cup, alongside the likes of Roy Keane and Laura Woods.
Gym Bonding and Biscuits
Karen Carney says the two things she cannot live without while in New York for the World Cup are rich tea biscuits and her gym kit. She revealed that the pundits and ITV hosts bond over gym time away from the cameras. “I like to train with the team, so every tournament there's a core group of us that train pretty much at least five or six days a week, and we go to the gym every morning, I've done that for the last three tournaments,” Karen said.
She added: “Now certain fitness people, they’ll come once and then we don't see them again, which is hilarious, but there's a core group of people and we go to the gym and we work out.”
Research and Preparation
Karen also revealed that she researches games up to two weeks before each match, gathering information from scouting systems and watching dozens of games. She has seen hundreds of matches in the run-up to the World Cup.
England's Chances
On England’s chances, the ITV pundit said: “That's the hardest thing, turning silver to gold. Just from my experience as a Lioness, I know it's very different, but we made semi finals. Tuchel has openly said ‘I might not take the best players, I want to take the best group’ so it'll be interesting. You need luck, you need momentum and you need game changers. There's a lot of factors to win a major tournament. You have to trust his team selection.”
She also singled out Portugal as a team to watch: “Outside of the top teams Portugal really impress me. I'd argue that you find a - I'm struggling to find a better, more equipped midfield anywhere in the tournament, really. So I am intrigued to see how they do.”
Strictly Come Dancing Confidence Boost
Karen also told how winning Strictly Come Dancing helped rebuild her confidence in being a pundit on TV after facing cruel comments from trolls on social media in the past. She said: “It gave me a lot more confidence. It did give me that confidence to kind of relax into it. You learn about yourself as well, but I'm eternally grateful to Strictly. Our aim was to have the best time and to deliver the best performances that we can control. And like, if people like us, great. If not, we just continue to try and be good people. You're never going to please everybody that's watching or listening or tuning in, and I think that's how I've been able to really manage a lot of things more so over the last year or two, or even couple of years, is that my team are my priority, and as long as they're happy with me, then you know I feel like I'm okay.”
The FIFA World Cup can be watched on ITV1 and ITVX.
