LUCKY charm Chesney Hawkes celebrated in Qatar last night after a last-gasp sprint to the match as he roared: “It’s coming home.”
The One And Only singer made kick-off with minutes to spare thanks to The Sun’s military-style operation to get him from Skegness to cheer on the Three Lions.
The 3,400-mile, 23-hour dash saw him sweep into the desert state with just his hand luggage and a guitar — and an excess baggage-sized goodwill message for England’s heroes.
And together with 8,000 jubilant Lionhearts Chesney, 51, was punching the air in delight at the final whistle in the Al Bayt stadium as Gareth Southgate’s men roared into the quarter finals.
He said: “England were amazing tonight. I was delighted to make it back and it was all down to The Sun. I’ll have to stay on in Qatar now. With the Three Lions playing out of their skin I reckon we can go all the way.”
We launched Operation Sun And Only to get Chesney back to Qatar after his rousing half-time rendition of his 1991 hit helped inspire England to a thumping 3-0 win over Wales.
The players were also keen for him to return with West Ham’s Declan Rice declaring: “We’re pals now and we’ve got to get him to the games. We’ll get him singing The One And Only at every half-time. Hopefully we’ll get him back to No1 as well.”
Chesney had to return to the UK after the final Group B game against Wales for a pre-arranged gig at Butlin’s in Skegness, Lincs.
He went there via a stop-off at The Sun’s HQ, where he had a singalong with boxing champ Tyson Fury.
Chesney went down a storm in Skegness as part of a 90s Reloaded show with DJ Judge Jules and S Club 7’s Jo O’Meara.
As soon as he was off stage Berkshire-born Chesney raced to the Sun’s car to hot foot it back to his London base for three hours’ sleep.
He then leapt into another Sun car to Heathrow for the 8.35am flight to Doha and had another nap on the plane.
The Qatar Airways Boeing 777-300 touched down at 17.50 local time and Chesney raced through customs and to yet another waiting Sun car for the last leg of the journey, the 69,000-seater Al Bayt Stadium.
The Sun’s Special Ops team had to weave our way through the traffic to deliver Chesney to the stadium shortly before kick-off — to the delight of England fans.
He whipped out his guitar and performed a quick rendition of his best-known song to huge cheers from the fans, who hope he’ll be our lucky mascot all the way to the final.
PE teacher Stef Carte, 37, of Leeds, said: “I knew he’d be our lucky mascot once again.”
And Matt Harris, 40, of Warrington, Cheshire, added: “We love Ches and couldn’t believe it when we bumped into him at the stadium.”
Chesney, who now lives in LA with model wife Kristina, 47, and their three children, said: “I am ecstatic. I’m a massive Three Lions fan and it means so much to me.
“I’m also a big West Ham fan and spent quite a bit of time chatting to Declan Rice at the Wales match.
“I will be here to cheer on the boys in the quarter final and beyond. I am delighted that I have been adopted by the team as their lucky mascot.”
