Courtney Love has emerged as one of the loudest cheerleaders for the English national men's football team at this summer's FIFA World Cup, comparing their recent 3-2 win over Mexico to watching The Clash and The Rolling Stones live at the peak of their powers. Her very public conversion is the latest example of the celebrity frenzy building around the tournament, as stars from music and film pile in behind their adopted teams.
A Californian Anglophile
The former Hole frontwoman has long been an Anglophile, championing British bands, artists and writers. She has lived in England since 2019 and recently revealed she has applied for British citizenship. Even so, for those who see her as one of the defining faces of 1990s American alternative rock, her transformation into a diehard football fan has come as something of a surprise.
"The heart wants what the heart wants," Love posted on Instagram ahead of the Mexico match on 6 July, waving an England flag in her car while listening to Three Lions, the terrace anthem originally released by comedians David Baddiel and Frank Skinner with The Lightning Seeds in 1996. She added that despite being from California, she needed England to bring it home.
"The greatest" night at the Azteca
After the game, in an Instagram reel that appears to have since been deleted, Love hailed the match at the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City as the greatest, declaring: "It wasn't a football game, it was The Clash in 1977!" She likened the spectacle to accounts of the Rolling Stones in 1970 and described herself as a full convert.
Love urged the team to repeat the feat in Miami, referring to England's quarter-final against Norway on 11 July, while adding that even if nothing else happened, the Mexico win was enough.
