Jude Bellingham has insisted that his England goal celebration with Liverpool’s Jordan Henderson was completely unplanned.
Bellingham celebrated with Henderson after teeing up the Reds captain to open the scoring against Senegal on Sunday. The two players went head-to-head as they basked in the adulation of the crowd.
It was a sight which perhaps brought a chuckle from a few watching Liverpool fans. Henderson is notoriously intense with his goal celebrations. And speaking to the England Twitter page, Bellingham claimed it was all spontaneous.
“That was completely off the cuff. We’ve never even spoken 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, but that was completely off the cuff. But I think it’s turned into something that’s a little bit iconic,” said the 19-year-old.
“To be honest, he got so close and I was thinking ‘if this is what we’re going to do we’ll have to commit’ so I went and he went really hard, proper hard, and that’s why my back’s arched like that because I’m thinking ‘he’s proper hard here and he’s proper close!’ So, I had to turn the core on a bit, lean forward and get into a more comfortable position.
“It was a good moment, it’s something that lives forever those kinds of celebrations and hopefully people will be talking about it for a long time.”
We could get used to this
If you do one thing today, then watch Bellingham’s ‘Diary Room’ video for the England Twitter page.
The near four-minute-long clip could easily have been released by the official Liverpool account. It’s virtually an ode to Henderson and Trent Alexander-Arnold.
It’s also brilliant to hear the 19-year-old talking about his elite winning mentality.
At this point, Liverpool fans’ excitement about potentially signing Bellingham is going into overdrive. Should the Borussia Dortmund man not sign for the Reds from here, there’s going to be a few red faces.
Luckily, it appears as though Liverpool are the clear front-runners to sign the midfielder. That could all still change, of course. There’s still a fair way until the January transfer window opens and even further until the summer.
But with so much legwork in the saga already behind them, Liverpool should be feeling very confident of winning the race.
As for the celebration, maybe it’s a sight we’ll see at L4 in the future? Here’s to hoping.
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