Whether it is losing his voice roaring them to a famous victory, or slumping with his head in his hands watching them crash to an agonising defeat, the Prince of Wales has taken centre stage during Aston Villa’s return to European football.

But all eyes at Villa Park will be on the heir to the throne like never before if he attends their first competitive meeting with Celtic. For not only is Wednesday night’s Champions League clash one of Villa’s biggest matches in his lifetime, they are playing the one British club whose fans have made it abundantly clear they will never accept him as their king.

It has been barely three years since Celtic supporters infamously celebrated the death of Queen Elizabeth II by displaying banners that read, “F--- the Crown”, and, “Sorry for your loss Michael Fagan” – the latter about an intruder who found his way into her Buckingham Palace bedroom four decades earlier.

That was unrepentantly followed days later by chants of, “If you hate the Royal family, clap your hands”, and “Lizzie’s in a box”, as well as, “You can shove your coronation up your a--e,” before the following year’s crowning of the King at Westminster Abbey. Even Liverpool fans who jeered Prince William at the 2022 FA Cup final refused to plumb such depths.

That there is such a subplot to Wednesday’s match, on an evening that will also decide Villa and Celtic’s Champions League fates, could make it one of the most momentous nights yet of the Prince’s burgeoning love affair with the club he supports.

There has been no shortage of such nights in the past two seasons, during the Midlanders’ first European odyssey since 2010, and the Prince has been lured to several of them already, including the home legs of their Europa Conference League quarter-final and semi-final, and two matches in their first European Cup campaign since they won the trophy in 1982, less than a month before he was born.

The first of those outings in April, when he was joined by eldest son Prince George, was also his first public appearance after the Princess of Wales’s shock cancer announcement.

The second, the following month, was on the evening of daughter Princess Charlotte’s ninth birthday, when he was pictured with his head in his hands as Villa shipped four goals at home to Olympiacos.

Then came the club’s home Champions League debut, a 1-0 win over Bayern Munich in a repeat of the 1982 European Cup final. “I’ve lost my voice. I can’t quite believe it – 42 years,” a jubilant Prince told reporters. He even managed to get to a European away game, Villa’s 1-0 defeat at Monaco.

Joining him at those Champions League matches were some of his childhood friends, most notably Charlotte’s godfather, Thomas van Straubenzee, who is reportedly an avid follower of Villa.

Indeed, it is the Prince’s prep-school friendship with Van Straubenzee that may help explain the mystery of when and why someone with no obvious connection to the club – or the Midlands – ended up becoming their most famous fan.

In search of ‘roller-coaster moments’

During an appearance on the That Peter Crouch Podcast five years ago, William said he was the first to become a passionate football supporter in a Royal family whose sporting interests almost exclusively revolved around horses. Asked why he was a Villa fan, the Prince spoke about going to his first FA Cup match “with a load of mates” when he was 11 or 12. “I sat there amongst all the Villa fans and I loved it,” he said.

“I was born in ’82 as well and the friends of mine were desperately trying to get me to support Villa, as you can imagine, which worked. They were telling me about the history of the club and how it mattered and stuff like that and winning the European Cup. So, it kind of went from there.”

That FA Cup game was said by the Prince to have been against Bolton Wanderers. He may have been confusing it with the 2000 semi-final at Wembley, which he has long said he attended aged 17. Although, Villa did lose at Bolton’s old Burnden Park stadium in the FA Cup in 1994, the same year they won the League Cup at Wembley and a year before a 13-year-old William went to Eton.

He has said more than once he ultimately chose to support Villa because all his friends were Manchester United or Chelsea fans. He told Gary Lineker before the 2015 FA Cup final: “I wanted to have a team that was more mid-table that could give me more emotional roller-coaster moments.”

‘True supporter’ not ‘fair-weather fan’

Whether it was Van Straubenzee who got him into Villa or vice-versa, the first public indication of the Prince’s football allegiance came aged 16 when he was photographed wearing a claret beanie hat bearing the club’s crest. That was while being driven to his father’s 50th birthday party at Highgrove.

Pictures from his time at Eton have also subsequently emerged in which he can be seen wearing a waistcoat made from Villa’s 1998 home kit. That was upon becoming a member of “Pop” – the school’s society of elected prefects – in 2000, during his final year of sixth form.

But although he has been recorded as being at that year’s FA Cup semi-final – and going into Villa’s dressing room to congratulate them on their win – the next decade was one in which he was more likely to be spotted cheering on the England rugby team. Notwithstanding a BBC report in 2002 that said he had been “spied on occasion at Villa Park”, his attendance in November 2013 at Villa’s Premier League home game against Sunderland was billed by the club as his first visit.

Chief executive Paul Faulkner even felt moved to say afterwards: “He clearly follows the team and you could tell he has done that for a good number of years. He is certainly not a fair-weather fan. He is a true supporter.” Faulkner said the Prince also took time to speak to former Villa captain Stiliyan Petrov, who had been forced to retire that year after developing leukaemia.

That visit came months after the birth of Prince George, which Villa had marked by sending the newborn a kit with “HRH 1” on the back. Prince William later spoke on Crouch’s podcast about the effect becoming a father had on his love of football. “Since being a dad, without a doubt, football has become way more important to me than ever. It’s really weird,” he said. “I need to go and be amongst other guys and kind of let out a bit of steam. Shout a bit.”

Days after the birth of Charlotte in May 2015, William played a key role in what was Villa’s biggest match for almost two decades. As president – now patron – of the Football Association, William was hoping to have the honour of handing Villa the FA Cup, only for them to slump to a 4-0 defeat against Arsenal. Following the club’s 2016 relegation from the Premier League, William attended their April 2018 Championship win against Cardiff City days before the birth of Prince Louis. Manager Steve Bruce said afterwards that William “did the team talk”. The Prince of Wales also went home with Jack Grealish’s No 10 shirt. The Prince was at the game as a guest of former Villa striker John Carew, as he was the following year when the pair were pictured wildly celebrating the club’s promotion play-off final win at Wembley.

For Villa’s Premier League return, the Prince and Princess of Wales took George and Charlotte to their first match, in October 2019, a 5-1 thrashing of Norwich City at Carrow Road. George wore a claret “Team Villa” T-shirt and celebrated as they racked up the goals, indicating he had inherited his father’s love for the club. William later told the Crouch podcast: “Previously, I was a bit concerned about him supporting Chelsea.” He even suggested the “culture” that had once been at the London side went against the “values and ethos” he wanted clubs to promote.

“I want them to set a good example to the young fans. And I want all our children when they go to a football match to come away loving what they’ve seen, enjoying it, and see their role models behaving in a way that we’d all want them to.” Louis was reportedly seen wearing what may have been George’s Villa hand-me-downs during the recent Christmas holidays.

Secret posts on fan forums

William revealed on the Crouch podcast that his staff “deliberately keep me away” from the official Kensington Palace Twitter account after every Villa victory, adding: “I have to fight them for it.” He did manage to wrest control of it when the club avoided relegation on the final day of the 2019-20 season, posting, “Never in doubt”, along with a grimacing emoji and the hashtag #UpTheVilla. As with all posts written by William personally, that was signed “W”.

In October last year, he was unable to resist tagging TNT Sports co-commentator Ally McCoist on what is now X, following Villa’s Champions League win over Bologna. After McCoist made a joke during the match about whether William had been watching on television at home, the Prince wrote: “Of course I was watching, @‌Ally_McCoist9.”

Recent seasons have also seen William become an increasing presence at Villa on non-match days. He is a familiar face to most of their players, having been to the Bodymoor Heath campus to watch them train. He has also been in the dressing room before games to wish Unai Emery’s squad good luck. Emery told CBS after their win over Bayern: “Two years ago, when we were not in Europe, he was coming to our training ground, watching the session, and having lunch with us. He’s very humble with us. We appreciate a lot his visits to us.”

William and George both still seem to hold a candle for former Villa captain Grealish, despite the midfielder having left for Manchester City four years ago. George could not stop beaming upon greeting Grealish after last year’s FA Cup final. Years earlier, William sent Grealish a handwritten letter after the player was punched on the pitch by a Birmingham City fan. The Prince also joked on the Crouch podcast that he had “nudged” Gareth Southgate about picking Grealish in the England squad. No one was more pleased than William, meanwhile, when Villa striker Ollie Watkins came off the bench to fire his country into last summer’s European Championship final.

As well as jetting out to Monaco to watch Villa after an official engagement, William has in recent weeks used a break in his schedule to meet fellow supporters at a JD Wetherspoon pub at Birmingham New Street station. According to those present, the Prince drank Bulmers cider as he more than held his own with veteran season-ticket holders during a 45-minute chat about all things Villa ahead of their trip to Everton. He was even said to have revealed that he posted on fan forums under various pseudonyms.

Inevitably, this seemingly spontaneous meet-up took place amid the tightest security, something that will also mean as few people as possible are likely to be told in advance if the Prince will attend Villa’s match against Celtic. Whether he does or not, this is surely not the last Villa Park will see of the future king on a European night. Indeed, with Villa guaranteed a Champions League play-off spot at the very least, it is not even the last time the stadium will hear the competition’s famous anthem. That is taken, of course, from Handel’s Zadok the Priest, something Celtic fans are no doubt aware is played at every coronation.