Gareth Southgate offers heartfelt advice to RR players after IPL 2025 elimination: 'The past isn't your fault guys'

After Rajasthan Royals’ heartbreaking one-run loss to Kolkata Knight Riders that knocked them out of IPL 2025 on Sunday, former England football coach Gareth Southgate shared some emotional and inspiring words with the players. Southgate was seen in the stands wearing RR’s pink jersey, cheering for the team during their recent matches.

Southgate’s advice for RR players

Speaking to the RR squad, Southgate told them not to carry the burden of the past. He reminded the players that even if they do a lot of things right, they might still lose, and sometimes even make mistakes and still win.

“You should really focus on this idea of that isn’t your fault, the past isn’t your fault guys, but what you can do is create your own history, making our own memories, breaking through barriers. Whatever happened last year with the Royals or next year with the Royals, there’s a balance between that because you’ve won in the past, so that’s a strength and you can have so many of them right and not win, and you can have a lot of them wrong and win,” he said while speaking to the players.

“We all made a mess of things, we all made mistakes, you’re never going to get every decision right but you’ve got to learn quickly,” he added.

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“There’s an expectation here, we play for Rajasthan Royals, this is the badge, this is the shirt, we play with pride, we play with quality, so there are all these nuances around culture and I just think you have to keep reinforcing this,” he added.

Southgate met Manoj Badale, one of the RR owners, and the two built a strong friendship. Badale then invited Southgate to India and into the Royals’ corner to watch their games in IPL 2025.

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Southgate is a lifelong cricket fan

Southgate revealed that he has been a big cricket fan since childhood. “I’ve always been a fan of cricket. When I was a young kid. I used to watch Test matches all day long. I mean, I am going back to the era of Kapil Dev and Sunil Gavaskar and players like that,” he said in a video released by the IPL’s official social media handle.

He also said that during his football career, he interacted with many England cricketers and coaches. Southgate also talked about Ben Stokes visiting the England football team last year and how such moments help teams grow.

𝙁𝙤𝙤𝙩𝙗𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙍𝙤𝙮𝙖𝙡𝙩𝙮 🤝 𝘾𝙧𝙞𝙘𝙠𝙚𝙩'𝙨 𝙍𝙤𝙮𝙖𝙡𝙨 ⚽🏏

Passion for cricket 👌

Former England football manager Gareth Southgate is soaking up the #TATAIPL experience with #RR 🩷
And more...#KKRvRR | @rajasthanroyals pic.twitter.com/doadVgHWnX

— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) May 5, 2025

Calling it his first trip to India, Southgate said he had a great time. “I love the sport, so it’s lovely to come here and I’ve loved coming to India, it’s the first time I’ve been to India, [and] everybody’s been really welcoming and it’s been an amazing experience.”