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21-year-old Actual Madrid star Jude Bellingham saved England’s Euro 2024 hopes over the weekend as he scored a last-second game-equalizing bicycle kick with simply data remaining, thus sending the sport to additional time, the place England would swiftly take the lead by way of Harry Kane.
After scoring the purpose, an understandably fired-up Bellingham was clearly feeling himself, screaming “Who else?!” after he scored, whereas additionally doing what gave the impression to be a “huge balls” celebration.
In a video posted to Twitter, Bellingham was accused of directing the celebration on the Slovakian bench, to which the England midfielder replied:
“An inside joke gesture in direction of some shut pals who had been on the recreation. Nothing however respect for a way that Slovakia workforce performed tonight.”
Based mostly on how shortly Bellingham’s response was was a meme, nonetheless, it might seem that the soccer world isn’t shopping for what Jude’s attempting to promote.
Cruder variations of the joke noticed Bellingham’s quote accompanied by photographs of the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the 9/11 assaults on the World Commerce Middle, and planes dropping bombs in World Conflict II.
One soccer fan in contrast Bellingham to LeBron James, who has famously earned a repute for sometimes exaggerating if not straight-up mendacity, typically in largely banal conditions.
“This man is about to go on a Lebron-level mendacity arc all through his entire profession,” they tweeted.
To his credit score, Bellingham’s similarities to LeBron go far past the occasional mistruth, because the Actual Madrid midfielder is attaining success at heights which have hardly ever been seen by a soccer participant his age.
Bellingham’s celebration has resulted in an investigation by UEFA “relating to a possible violation of the fundamental guidelines of first rate conduct.” Even when Bellingham had been discovered responsible of breaking UEFA’s guidelines, a suspension is reportedly unlikely.
With their extra-time win over Slovakia, England will now tackle Switzerland, who beat Italy, within the quarterfinals on Saturday, July 6.
