Jude Bellingham maintained his impressive resurgence for Real Madrid in the 2024/25 by scoring in his fifth straight La Liga game in their 3-0 win over Girona.
After failing to get a goal in his first eight league matches, the Englishman now has eight goal contributions (five goals, three assists) in the last five to take Los Blancos right back into the title race.
After scoring the slick goal, the English midfielder celebrated it in rather unique fashion.
He approached the corner flag before holding it with his left arm and raising his right arm upwards. The pinky finger on his right arm was slightly elevated, making many wonder if this would be his new trademark goal celebration.
While that was not to be, as Bellingham did his ‘arms spread’ trademark move soon after, this quirky gesture he did beside the corner flag has an interesting meaning behind it.
It turns out that this was actually the 21-year-old’s homage to the King of Rock’n’Roll Elvis Presley, an individual that Bellingham looks up to.
In fact, before Euro 2024 earlier this year, the Englishman made a surprising revelation by claiming that Presley’s ‘Love Me’ is his favourite song, stating: “I like Elvis. I like a song called ‘Love Me’ by Elvis.”
This was definitely unconventional considering many people his age hardly listen to Elvis and even Trent Alexander-Arnold was shocked by this pick, to which Bellingham replied: “Do you not know that one? Get on it!”
Despite being serenaded by the Beatles ‘Hey Jude’ chant, the English rock group don’t seem to be the one to have produced his favourite track. With that being said, this particular Elvis Presley gesture that Bellingham imitated in his gesture has a very interesting background.
Presley did this ‘pinky finger raised’ gesture during one of his shows in a tour of Jacksonville in August 1956. At that time, the legendary singer sparked controversy for his pelvic movement dance moves, which were considered vulgar and obscene. The judge of a Jacksonville Juvenile court, Marion Gooding, warned him not to perform his dance moves under his jurisdiction and even had the FBI keep him under surveillance.
At one of Elvis’ shows, Gooding himself visited it to keep an eye on him. The iconic singer realized this and in an act of defiance, he raised his little pinky finger at the crowd after being warned he could not ‘move even a little finger’.
Bellingham’s gesture appears to be his own way of rebelling against his critics and those who heavily mocked him for his poor start to the campaign. He also posted the picture of him doing the Elvis gesture on his Instagram with the rock legend’s ‘Can’t Help Falling In Love’ song attached to it, showing off how big an Elvis Presley fan he really is.
The 22-year-old is unlikely to replicate this gesture that often after already having his popular celebration, which has made him such a big star. But his antics after the Girona goal was a smart way of showing his love for Elvis to the whole world and also discreetly shutting up his doubters with his fifth consecutive league goal.
