Declan Rice and Cole Palmer proved on Saturday that Love Island isn’t just for girls as they made a surprising reference to the show after England advanced to the semi-finals of Euro 2024.
The Three Lions narrowly beat Switzerland on penalties in Düsseldorf to cement their place in the semi-finals.
And while the team took to social media to celebrate their win, Rice and Palmer proved to be secret fans of the ITV2 reality show.
Rice shared a photo on Instagram of himself, Jude Bellingham and Ivan Toney cheering on the pitch after the match, with the caption: “Uniformity. Semi-finals coming up!”
And among the hordes of fans who took to the comments to congratulate him, Palmer wrote: ‘WHO IS EMMAAAAAAAAA?’.
Declan Rice (pictured) and Cole Palmer proved Love Island isn’t just for girls on Saturday as they made a surprising reference to the show after England advanced to the semi-finals of Euro 2024.
The Three Lions narrowly beat Switzerland on penalties in Düsseldorf, consolidating their place in the semi-finals
And while the team took to social media to celebrate their win, Rice and Palmer proved to be secret fans of the ITV2 reality show.
In response, Rice was quick to reply: “Who is EMMMMAAAAR” with a series of laughing emojis.
While some football fans may have been confused by the comments, those who had been keeping up with Love Island picked up on the reference straight away and laughed out loud.
The quote comes from a viral clip of Nicole Samuels on the show earlier this week, shouting: “Who is Emma?” during a gripping challenge.
With the islanders split between the main villa and Casa Amor, they were tasked with completing risky challenges to compete and land a party in their villa.
And the saucy game included plenty of racy moments, including a challenge that read: “The youngest guy must kiss the girl he likes the most for five seconds.”
Ciaran Davies, who is dating Nicole, wasted no time in running straight to new bombshell Emma Milton and sharing a passionate kiss.
After securing victory, the main villa was told that Ciaran and Emma had beaten them, leaving Nicole in shock.
And as Emma’s name kept coming up in the challenge, she began to get more and more angry and repeatedly shouted, “Who is Emma?”
Rice shared a photo on Instagram of himself, Jude Bellingham and Ivan Toney cheering on the pitch after the match, with the caption: “Uniformity. Semi-finals coming up!”
And among the hordes of fans who took to the comments to congratulate him, Palmer wrote: ‘WHO IS EMMAAAAAAAAA?’ while Rice replied: ‘WHO IS EMMMMAAAAR?’
The moment sparked hysteria among viewers and soon went viral, with fans flooding social media with memes, jokes and lip-syncing videos.
It’s not the first time England players have revealed their guilty pleasure of watching Love Island between games.
During the last Euros, Jack Grealish shared a snap of the team watching the dating show in a huge cinema room at their accommodation.
While last week Ezri Konsa admitted that players “love” the hit show and watch it every night to lift their spirits.
He said: “Love Island, we love it. The lads love it. Every night some of them come into my room and we watch it.”
But this may not be good news for his 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 StandardIf I could stand what my kids have been watching for the last two weeks, then I would have watched Love Island.
“But I walked away from it and I managed to walk away from it because I don’t think I can handle it.”