Jude Bellingham explains intimate World Cup celebration with teammate Jordan Henderson
Footballer explains intimate World Cup celebration that sparked gay frenzy
Footballer Jude Bellingham has explained his “iconic” celebration with teammate Jordan Henderson.
The two midfielders shared an intimate celebration after scoring England’s first goal against Senegal at the Qatar World Cup.
Henderson netted the Sunday (4 December) goal with an assist from Bellingham, who explained the celebration where the two leaned on each other’s foreheads and stared into their eyes.
“That was completely off the cuff,” he explained. “We’ve never even spoke about if I was to get an assist for him or whatever.
“Obviously we’re spending a lot of time with each other at the minute… I think it’s turned into something that’s a little bit iconic.”
Fans seemed to agree, with several users on Twitter lauding the celebration and the goal that preceded it.
One wrote: “What a goal. What a pass. What a celebration.”
“Apparently Jordan Henderson has been looking out for Judge Bellingham in the camp,” another user wrote. “Their celebration was adorable!”
Bellingham explained that, in the moment, the two knew they had to commit to the celebration.
“To be honest, he got so close and I was thinking, ‘right, is this what we’re going to do, we have to commit, don’t we?’ So I went and he went really hard, you know, proper hard.
“And that’s why my back is arched like that because I’m thinking, ‘he’s proper hard here and he’s proper close,'” Bellingham continued.
“So I just had to turn the core on a bit, lean forward and get into a bit more of [a] comfortable position.”
The opener jumpstarted an exhilarating 3-0 win for England, pitting them against France in the quarter-finals on Saturday (10 December).
Speaking to The Guardian, team coach Gareth Southgate challenged the England players to create history in the upcoming match.
“What we talked about against Senegal was keeping the relentless pressure going, not sitting back when we were ahead, making sure that we kept the intensity of our game,” he said. “We’ve got to do that now against the world champions.
“We had a lot of caps on the pitch against Senegal, even the younger ones because we’ve blooded them early.”
Stigma surrounded the 2022 Qatar World Cup
The unabashedly homoerotic moment felt like a brief moment of fresh air considering the stigma arising around the 2022 Qatar World Cup.
FIFA’s decision to host the sporting tournament in Qatar, which has several homophobic laws, has received severe backlash from the LGBTQ+ community and allies.
Former footballer Thomas Beattie condemned the choice of host country, saying that it made a “very clear” statement that football “isn’t for everyone”.
When speaking about FIFA’s warning of sanctions to players who vowed to wear an LGBTQ-positive ‘OneLove’ armband, Beattie said that it was “unfair” to put them in a “predicament that shouldn’t be on them”.
“Their focus should be to perform at the best of their abilities,” he said.
“That in itself I think is a form of oppression of someone’s right to protest or right to speak openly about what they believe in.”
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