Revealed: Origins of Bellingham and Alexander-Arnold England celebration

Jude Bellingham and Trent Alexander-Arnold are firm friends around the England camp and the teammates debuted a new celebration on Sunday night during the Three Lions’ opening Euro 2024 win against Serbia. 

Bellingham, 20, scored the only goal of the game in Gelsenkirchen, rising high inside the first 15 minutes to nod his side in front.

From there England's lead was unassailable with Liverpool hero Alexander-Arnold starring in a midfield role. 

And while the Real Madrid man’s England teammates were gathering inside their own half for Serbia’s kickoff, Bellingham and Alexander-Arnold conducted a celebration that the television cameras missed. 

Each player went down on one knee and covered their faces with their right hands. 

When it was spotted across social media, it led to discussions as to what could be the motivation. 

Bellingham and Alexander-Arnold's Wolf Crew celebration

After the game, Bellingham revealed the celebration with Alexander-Arnold was a tribute to England’s “Wolf Crew” - a group of players and staff behind the scenes that play the card game “Werewolf”. 

“When we play ‘Wolf’, one of the staff holds his face like that when he doesn’t know what’s going on,” the midfield sensation told the BBC. “That was a little joint celebration for the Wolf Crew.”

READ MORE: Bellingham praises Alexander-Arnold

Later, in the post-match press conference, Bellingham elaborated: “It was more a celebration for the backroom staff who put in so much work every day.

"They don’t get to have the moments we have on the pitch but we value them so much, and it’s important we keep that atmosphere,” he said. 

In the card game players are separated into wolves and villagers. The villagers must work out who the wolves are, with the wolves having to lie and convince the other that they are not the wolves. 

Fans of the popular BBC show The Traitors may recognise the format as the series is a spinoff of the original game invented by Russian Dmitry Davydov, a Russian psychologist, in 1986.