England and West Ham footballer Declan Rice has shown his approval after fans tattooed his name on their legs – but the move has received savage mockery from others. Read Full Article at RT.com

England and West Ham footballer Declan Rice has shown his approval after fans tattooed his name on their legs – but the move has received savage mockery from others.

Midfielder Rice formed a formidable partnership with Leeds United’s Kalvin Philips at Euro 2020, where the 22-year-old was one of the breakout stars as the Three Lions went all the way to the final.

Despite suffering heartbreak in the defeat at Wembley to Italy, two fanatics have decided to honor the exploits of the No4, who a string of top Premier League clubs are now keen to ink a deal with.

When he caught wind of the tribute, which is a continuation of a popular terrace chant that is based on 1995 dance hit ‘The Bomb!’ by The Bucketheads, Rice retweeted their post to his Twitter contingent of more than 311,000 followers.

“Beef chow mein, Declan Riceeee. Love it,” wrote the Londoner above two photos showing two thighs bearing those words, which form the lyrics to the unlikely anthem.

Sadly for the Rice devotees, not everyone matched their hero’s enthusiasm towards their tributes.

“Be honest: are you all ready regretting it?,” asked one onlooker. “You’ve had a shocker, mate.”

“Arguably the worst tattoos I’ve ever seen,” another remarked, while one onlooker asked: “Is this a joke?”

Critics accused the artwork of being “horrendous”, with one predicting: “You’ll both regret those when he’s a Chelsea or [Manchester] United player.”

The duo are not the first fans to have ink added to their bodies in homage to Rice.

On July 8 – the morning after England beat Denmark 2-1 in the semifinals – producer Charlie Burley revealed that he had “drunkenly agreed to get a tattoo of beef chow mein with Declan Rice’s face on it”.

“It is happening this afternoon. F*ck my life,” he added.

True to his word, Burley went to his nearest studio and got the work done.

Revealing that he had made the vow if England reached their first final since 1966 while “championing” the chow mein chant, Burley showed the design off days later.

And while England fell at the last hurdle, Rice enamored himself to fans again with his actions in Hungary earlier this month.

Rice picked up a cup thrown on to the pitch and drank from it after his team scored one of their goals in a 4-0 World Cup qualifying rout which saw some players receive racist abuse and the taking of the knee jeered among a hostile atmosphere.

England coach Gareth Southgate wasn’t blown away by Rice’s antics. “Declan is usually in most memes that get posted on social media in one way or another,” the boss said later.

“I think we needed to be a little bit careful in how our interaction with the crowd was the other day.

“We all recognize that certain things that happened weren’t acceptable but, also, we ran a little bit of a risk of inflaming some of those situations.

“So I think the players managed that quite well but I think the boys have to have at the back of their minds that humility.

“‘Yes, we were playing well and we got a good result but let’s keep our professionalism and keep our focus’.

“We are going to have to play these teams again and we don’t want to give them any additional motivation by any of our actions.”

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Declan Rice (rice) swigged a drink and Gareth Southgate (inset) took a knee as England won in Hungary © Carl Recine / Reuters
Southgate admits UK has ‘similar’ racism issue to Hungary after England stars are pelted & booed for kneeling during chaotic match

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