A CLIP has reemerged of a global celebrity declaring their love for Bradford City after Ipswich Town were promoted to the Premier League.
Ed Sheeran is a worldwide name, with beloved hits such as Perfect and Shape Of You, and the 33-year-old is well-known as showing support for Ipswich Town, who are based where the star grew up, in Suffolk.
He has even sponsored the new Premier League side – both the men’s and women’s teams – since the 2021/22 season.
But you would be forgiven for not knowing the singer-songwriter once sheepishly declared himself as a Bradford City fan more than a decade ago.
Ipswich Town fans walk past images of Ed Sheeran as they enter the ground before the Sky Bet Championship match at Portman Road on April 13, 2024 (Image: PA)
An old audio clip has reemerged online of a radio interview with Sheeran where football was the hot topic.
Why has this suddenly appeared all over people’s feeds again?
Well, it all came about following the confirmation of Ipswich Town’s promotion to the top tier of English football after a 22-year absence on May 4, when they beat Huddersfield Town 2-0.
A post went up on popular Reddit forum, Soccer, titled: “Lifelong Ipswich Town supporter Ed Sheeran celebrating PROMOTION in Miami”.
It featured a video clip of the red-headed superstar, clad in an Ipswich shirt, seemingly in a hotel lobby with a pint of beer.
Lifelong Ipswich Town supporter Ed Sheeran celebrating PROMOTION in Miami
byu/ComfortableNo2879 insoccer
Around him are three other Ipswich fans – all also showing their support in various club shirts – and, as Sheeran takes a sip of his drink, one of them asks: “What does that taste like?”
The popstar responds: “It tastes like promotion!” – cue loud cheers all around from the other supporters.
The post has 1,800 likes and 73 comments at the time of writing, but some took issue with the use of the adjective “lifelong” in the Reddit post’s comments.
One user said: “Lifelong??? Waits for someone to post that Bradford City clip.”
Someone duly obliged and shared a link to a post on X – known then as Twitter – from February 19, 2018 by Bantams Banter.
It features an audio clip alongside a picture of Sheeran in a City top, as well as a more current photo.
The interviewer presses Sheeran, who was born in Hebden Bridge, as to whether he supports Halifax Town but before he can explain his denial of that, the presenter then says: “Hartlepool, is that right?”
Sheeran the Bantam! #bcafc@edsheeran @officialbantams pic.twitter.com/XkqSsfR6aK
— Bantams Banter (@bantamsbanter) February 19, 2018
Sheeran responds: “See, that’s on Wikipedia, do you know, the problem is with that, my merchandise guy, who’s a lovely guy, but he’s a fanatical Hartlepool fan and Hartlepool sent him a shirt that said Sheeran and he said, ‘can I just get a picture with you holding this shirt for the website?’, and I was like ‘yeah fair enough’.
“Did a picture with it and now it’s on Wikipedia.”
The interviewer then puts forward: “That means you’re not a football fan.”
Sheeran says: “I’m not a football fan at all, I like watching... but I like watching football, but I wouldn’t want to assign myself to a team.”
Then comes the golden moment, as the interviewer jests: “Too late now, you’re a Hartlepool fan."
Ed Sheeran (Image: PA)
Sheeran responds: “Well I think if I was gonna’ be a fan, I’d probably be a Bradford City fan.”
Some X users at the time claim the original clip is actually even older than when the post was made, back from 2011.
Sheeran did not attend Ipswich’s final clinching game as he is currently on tour in the US.
The question is, could he end up making a surprise appearance at Valley Parade in the future?
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