Updated:
Readtime: 5 min
Every product is carefully selected by our editors and experts. If you buy from a link, we may earn a commission. Learn more. For more information on how we test products, click here.
- Palace, Nike and England have released a new World Cup campaign film starring Wayne Rooney and Jill Scott
- The film follows English football fandom from modern match-day chaos all the way back to Stonehenge
- A wider Palace x Nike x England collection is coming, with early access through Palace and England channels
- The capsule is expected to land on SNKRS and select retailers this summer/ winter, with full release details still to be confirmed
Wayne Rooney reading Shakespeare in a Palace x Nike England film sounds like something someone made up in a group chat. Yet somehow, it works.
Palace, Nike and England have released a new World Cup campaign starring Rooney and Jill Scott, and it might be the most aggressively English bit of football marketing we’ll see from the Poms before the 2026 tournament even begins. There are pubs, Sunday-league scenes (no time for the roast), fans in full voice, historical flashbacks, Wazza delivering verse, and a final gag that suggests Stonehenge may have been a primitive set of goalposts all along (and maybe a portal into the very fabric of England).
Palace x Nike x England Goes Full Tournament Mode
The film arrives as part of the wider Palace x Nike x England World Cup collaboration, with early access available through Palace Skateboards London and England, before the capsule comes to SNKRS and select retailers this summer (winter for us down under).
For now, we have a full English breakfast of a campaign to dive into. It jumps across football history and fandom with the sort of fast, messy, pub-floor energy Palace has built its name on. Rather than presenting England football as clean, noble and perfectly lit (we all know it most definitely isn’t), it puts its head over the ball and kicks the truth straight into the back of the net.
Football is loud, sentimental, overconfident, funny, occasionally ridiculous, and still capable of making everyone believe again.
Whether you’re singing “You’ll Never Walk Alone” or blowing bubbles in the sky, this is where football actually lives: in songs, local rituals, bad jokes, worse pints, and people convincing themselves this is finally the year. Now Palace, Nike and England are trying to take that feeling of going to Wembley with them to North America for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
It also arrives a few weeks after the recent adidas campaign starring Timothée Chalamet, Bad Bunny and Lionel Messi, which turned street football into something closer to a cinematic heist movie. Both campaigns nod to the reality of the beautiful game, particularly how beauty gets defined. It’s not always under the spotlights of international and league tournaments. It’s on rough surfaces, in local parks, outside flats, Stonehenge, and anywhere kids can find enough room to dream bigger than the pitch in front of them. Whether it’s Nike, Palace or adidas, they all understand that football is more than a game. It’s a way of life.
Related: Kith, Adidas and Lionel Messi Are About to Drop the Football Capsule of the Year
Rooney, Shakespeare and a Very English Bit of Casting
Rooney’s casting is the obvious pick, especially with Beckham already busy on the adidas side of the fence. As England’s former record goalscorer and one of the defining faces of Nike football through the 2000s and 2010s, he carries a very specific kind of tournament memory. More than just a famous footballer in the film, he’s a part of England’s wallpaper.
Seeing him recite Shakespeare is both a hilarious visual and a clean connection to the history English football loves to wrap around itself. William may not have played, but football sits beside him as one of the country’s great exports.
Jill Scott is a smart inclusion, too. The former Lioness brings England tournament history from a different and more recent chapter, helping the campaign avoid feeling like a purely lads-down-the-pub nostalgia trip. It still has plenty of that energy, mind you. It just knows the game belongs to more than one version of England.
Palace Brings Football Nostalgia To Life
This also isn’t Palace and Nike’s first run at football culture. Their relationship has already moved through projects rooted in Nike football heritage, including the P90 collection inspired by early-2000s football culture, while Manor Place in South London has given the partnership a more grounded community expression through a free-to-access skatepark, football cage and gallery space.
The full Palace x Nike x England collection hasn’t been revealed, but the campaign teases Nike ’26 collaboration kits, with early access available via Palace Skateboards London and England. A wider release is expected through SNKRS and select retailers, with exact timing still to be confirmed.
England doesn’t need to clean itself up to sell the world on its football. The campaign is loud, strange and a little bit unhinged, which feels far more honest than another slow-motion montage of slick footwork and serious faces. Palace, Nike and England are selling the fans, the passion and the mess below the surface.
Plus, no one here had Rooney reciting Shakespeare on their 2026 bingo cards, did they?
Comments
We love hearing from you. or to leave a comment.