Cole Palmer’s stock continues to rise in the Premier League as he’s ushered Chelsea into competing with Liverpool and Arsenal in the title race. With Manchester City crumbling from within, it’s been their former academy graduate to inspire the Blues to consistently winning matches and keeping their grip in the race for top spot.
Palmer has scored 11 goals and provided six assists in 17 Premier League games so far in the 2024/25 campaign. This has included four goals in a 4-2 romping of Brighton & Hove Albion too. He continues to see his popularity soar, and children of all ages are starting to look up to him as their footballing hero too.
The 22-year-old was recently involved in an adorable interaction with a baby. The Chelsea star is sharing a sweet handshake with the baby, who impressively maintains utmost eye contact with Palmer and almost seems to be in awe of the England international.
This adorable picture has had many claiming that Palmer is trying to ‘dap up’ the little toddler and set him up for future greatness. Dapping up is considered as a respectable way of greeting an individual and the Cambridge dictionary describes it as a method ‘to knock your fist against someone else’s fist as a greeting or an expression of admiration.’
Giving dap can be referred to many types of nonverbal communication between two people, which could include simple body contact to a variety of hand slaps, shakes and snaps. It is considered as a ‘secret handshake’. Dapping up was originated during the Vietnam War by the Black American soldiers as part of the ‘Black Power’ movement.
The ‘Dapping Up’ gesture was one to instill solidarity among Black soliders as a way of committing to look after another during the war. It was a response for the racism suffered by them from the White American soldiers, who often killed Black Soldiers in combat. The white soldiers feared this ‘Dapping up’ gesture as something that might be linked to a rebellion from the black soldiers.
This gesture continues to be used among Black People, especially by celebrities. NBA icon Lebron James is someone who loves to ‘dap up’ teammates with creative handshakes, and the gesture has also been used by other prominent personalities.
In Palmer’s context, this ‘dappening up’ is something only he’ll understand because the baby has no idea what that even means. Some fans have linked this gesture from the Chelsea star as being similar to how Lionel Messi ‘blessed’ Lamine Yamal when the Barcelona winger was only just a toddler. There are pictures of a 16-year-old Messi bathing a baby Yamal, which fans believe was the time when he ‘transferred his powers’ to the Spaniard.
There is a belief that Palmer might be transferring his footballing powers to the baby in this interaction. Some supporters are already urging Chelsea’s decision-makers to keep an eye on the toddler and sign him up from their club as soon as possible. One fan claimed ‘the baby locked in, Todd Boehly keep an eye on him,’. Another Blues’ fan stated ‘Waitttt is this our Messi-blessing-Lamine-Yamal moment… that’s the next chels superstar right there.’
One Chelsea fan even tipped the toddler to go onto achieve great things by stating ‘This kid will break every possible football record’, and another commented ‘We gotta come back to this In 17 Years’. Perhaps only time will tell if this kid becomes a football sensation in the future , but he’s definitely been blessed by the best English football has to offer right now.
