Declan Rice and Cole Palmer proved Love Island isn’t just for the girls on Saturday when they made a surprise reference to the show after England qualified for the semi-finals of Euro 2024.
The Three Lions narrowly defeated Switzerland on penalties in Düsseldorf to secure a place in the semi-finals.
And while the team celebrated their victory on social media, Rice and Palmer revealed they are secret fans of the ITV2 reality show.
Rice shared a photo on Instagram of himself, Jude Bellingham and Ivan Toney cheering on the field after the game, with the caption: “Togetherness. Semifinals are coming!!!”
And amid the hordes of fans congratulating him, Palmer wrote: ‘WHO IS EMMAAAAAAAAA’.
Declan Rice (pictured) and Cole Palmer proved Love Island isn’t just for the girls on Saturday when they made a surprise reference to the show after England qualified for the semi-finals of Euro 2024.
The Three Lions narrowly defeated Switzerland on penalties in Düsseldorf to secure a place in the semi-finals
And while the team celebrated their win on social media, Rice and Palmer revealed they are secret fans of the ITV2 reality show
Rice quickly responded with, “who is EMMMMAAAAR” with a series of laughing emojis.
While the comments may have confused some football fans, those who closely follow Love Island immediately spotted the reference and couldn’t stop laughing.
The quote comes from a clip that went viral on the show earlier this week, in which Nicole Samuels shouts, “Who is Emma?” during a steamy challenge.
The islanders were divided between the main villa and Casa Amor. They had to complete risky tasks to make their villa a party.
And the naughty game featured plenty of spicy moments, including a challenge that read: ‘The youngest boy must kiss the girl he likes the most for five seconds.’
Ciaran Davies, who is in a relationship with Nicole, immediately ran to her new flame Emma Milton and gave her a passionate kiss.
After securing the win, the main villa was told that Ciaran and Emma had beaten them. Nicole was shocked.
And as Emma’s name kept coming up in the challenge, she started shouting more and more irritatedly, “Who’s Emma?”
Rice shared a photo on Instagram of himself, Jude Bellingham and Ivan Toney cheering on the field after the game, with the caption: “Togetherness. Semifinals are coming!!!”
And among the hordes of fans congratulating him, Palmer wrote: ‘WHO IS EMMAAAAAAAAA’ while Rice replied: ‘who is EMMMMAAAR’
The moment caused hilarity among viewers and quickly went viral, with fans flooding social media with memes, jokes and lip-sync videos.
It’s not the first time the England players have indulged in their guilty pleasure by watching Love Island between matches.
During the last European Championship, Jack Grealish shared a snap of the team watching the dating programme in a large cinema at their accommodation.
Ezri Konsa admitted last week that the players love the hit series and watch it every night to boost their mood.
He said: ‘Love Island – we’re big on it. The boys love it. Every night a couple of the boys come to my room and we watch it.’
But it may not be good news for their manager, as Gareth Southgate previously revealed he is not a fan of the show after his children Mia and Flynn became obsessed with it in 2017.
He told the Evening standard: ‘If I could stand what my kids have been watching for the past two weeks, I would have watched Love Island.
“But I’ve detached myself from that and I’ve managed to tear myself away from it, because I don’t think I could bear it.”