Jude Bellingham poses in Calvin Klein underwear, and Toni Kroos comments with 'WTF'

The campaign

Jude Bellingham, 23, is the new face of the Icon Cotton Stretch underwear line from the US label Calvin Klein. He posted photos and videos of himself in the brand's underwear on Instagram, where he has about 56.6 million followers according to Spiegel Online. The images were shot in Madrid last summer by photographer Oliver Hadlee Pearch. The campaign tagline reads 'The icon underneath', and a poster in SoHo, New York, showed a muscular torso without a face, with the brand teasing a 'next icon' to come. The Telegraaf reports that Bellingham succeeds Romelu Lukaku, who modelled for the brand a few years earlier.

Reaction online

Toni Kroos, 36, a former Real Madrid teammate, answered with one comment: 'WTF', which Spiegel Online translates as 'What the fuck'. Spiegel considers it presumably meant as a compliment, noting that the two have praised each other before. Kroos's comment had more than 650,000 likes in Spiegel's count, while 20 Minuten put it at almost 700,000 by the morning of 4 November. Lucas Vázquez, another former teammate, replied with 'Okayyyyyyy'. Bellingham's post drew more than 130,000 comments, and more than 3.7 million followers had liked it according to Spiegel.

The response also came from new audiences. Stern describes a wave of users who said they knew little about football but found Bellingham attractive, and the US edition of Cosmopolitan urged its readers to thank Calvin Klein. Male users reacted differently, with some saying they felt pressured by the new competition on the poster. One Instagram reel quoted by Stern called Bellingham one of the best footballers in the world who also looks very good.

Standing and background

Spiegel Online says Bellingham had long found it hard to win over people at home because of what it describes as his excessive self-confidence. During the World Cup he won people over with his physicality, pace, headers, overview and tackling. The Telegraaf reports that People magazine named him the sexiest player of the World Cup, and that his team missed the title last summer. Bellingham and Kroos played together at Real Madrid in the 2023/2024 season, and Kroos ended his career after the 2024 European Championship.

Bellingham's view

Bellingham said he enjoyed working on the campaign and liked putting the brand's idea into his own way. According to Stern, he said that confidence starts with feeling at ease in your own skin. The campaign film shows him moving from a tank top and jeans into underwear, with a stadium cheering in the background.