The year was 1996. Britpop was booming, Cool Britannia was the vibe, and England came agonizingly close to bringing football home. It was the perfect storm for an anthem that would define a generation.

"It doesn't bother me that even though I've done many other things in my career, when I'm dead they'll say 'best known for co-creating the England football anthem Three Lions'," says David Baddiel, speaking 30 years after the song's release. And he means it. The comedian and co-creator remains proud of the track that became the soundtrack of English summers.

"I think it's a fantastic example of something that wasn't designed to be a really popular thing," Baddiel explains. "There was no top-down element of it. It was just three blokes trying to write about football and it caught fire."

And catch fire it did. For anyone who lived through Euro '96, "Three Lions" was everywhere—pubs, stadiums, living rooms. It captured the hope, the heartbreak, and the unshakable belief that this time, maybe, it would come home.

But the song didn't fade with that tournament. It became timeless. New generations of football fans have adopted it as their own, singing it at major events from World Cups to European Championships.

Liam Edwards, born in 1997 and a member of the England Supporters Travel Club, says: "Even as a kid I remember just being enlightened by this song. I think it's kind of embedded in England football history. It means community, togetherness and unity over one thing—that we're desperate to see England win!"

He adds: "I think it's a song that follows the journey. Wherever the England national team sends us, we'll sing it. I've been in some weird places—like Kaliningrad in Russia—where all you could hear was 'it's coming home'. We also sang it at the Qatar World Cup and at Euro 2020."

So how did this iconic anthem come together? Back in 1996, Baddiel and fellow comedian Frank Skinner were riding high with their hit show Fantasy Football League, pulling in six million viewers. When The Lightning Seeds' frontman Ian Broudie was asked by the Football Association to write music for an England song, he knew exactly who to call for the lyrics.

"Ian Broudie—bless him—felt that me and Frank represented, in a kind of grassroots way, the nation's football fans," says Baddiel. And they did. The result was a song that wasn't just about a team; it was about a feeling. A feeling that, every few years, sweeps across England and reminds everyone why they love the beautiful game.

Whether you're wearing the shirt at Wembley or watching from your living room, "Three Lions" is more than a song. It's a promise that the dream is always worth believing in.