Jadon Sancho, Marcus Rashford, and Bukayo Saka are three names that will forever be stitched into the fabric of football history in the UK.
Ted Lasso star Jason Sudeikis paid tribute to the three England footballers by donning a sweater emblazoned with their first names at the premiere of the Apple TV+ show’s Season 2, after the players faced a barrage of racist online abuse following the UEFA Euro final.
Appearing on The Late Show, Sudeikis talked to Stephen Colbert about the significance of the shirt. “Jadon, Marcus, and Bukayo are three of the English footballers from their national team. They were the last three young fellas that took the penalty kicks — they didn’t turn out the way that certainly England would have hoped, certainly a lot of us here in the States would have too, and people worldwide,” he said.
“They caught a lot of guff online, the three young Black men, and our show is rooted in both despising things like bullying and racism, but it also is rooted and takes place in London in England,” he added. Sudeikis added that he used the premiere to spotlight the three players and to let them know that the show has their back.
“What they’ve gone through and what they do, like even Marcus, the remarkable things he did leading up to the season during the pandemic, helping feed kids that weren’t getting school lunches because they weren’t going to school,” he added. “I hope it’s understood that we’re all clapping and supporting them, like I’m just wearing a shirt.”
Sudeikis added that he chose to put the players’ first names on the shirt because they’re “the names their parents gave them…because they’re kids, they’re young men and they should have the opportunity to succeed and fail and tie like everyone.”
