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Friendship groups of English teams revealed – from the ‘Bolo Boys’ to ‘Wolf Crew’

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Friendship groups of English teams revealed – from the ‘Bolo Boys’ to ‘Wolf Crew’

The ‘Bolo Boys’, the ‘Sheriffs’, the ‘Wolf Crew’.

They sound like the kind of names given to groups of European ‘ultra’ fans, or to young men about to go on a stag weekend. Instead, they are just some of the tags that English footballers use as new friendships are formed and old alliances are strengthened during this European Championship.

The days when club cliques dominated international competition in England are long gone, with players from Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal later admitting that they often stuck with their ‘tribe’, such was the intensity of the domestic rivalry.

They readily admitted that they wanted to tear each other apart when they met in the Premier League and that it was difficult to get over those differences when they were asked to come together on duty in England. Former Liverpool midfielder Jamie Redknapp even said factionalism had made international duty “a chore”.

In Germany this month, where England continue their Euro 2024 challenge against Denmark in Frankfurt today (Thursday) in the second of three group games, no such divisions exist. There are breakaway groups within the total team of 26 people, but the atmosphere at their luxurious base, the Spa & GolfResort Weimarer Land near Blankenhain, is one of unity. If England fail to win this competition, divisions behind the scenes will not be the cause.

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The greater spread of clubs under 26 also helps. At the 2006 World Cup, also organized by Germany, manager Sven-Goran Eriksson’s squad consisted of ten clubs; Gareth Southgate’s class of 2024 consists of representatives from 14 and friendship groups that cross club boundaries.

Jude Bellingham and Trent Alexander-Arnold are a good example. The two are so close that Alexander-Arnold’s Liverpool hoped it would help them in their search for Borussia Dortmund midfielder Bellingham last summer. Instead, he joined Real Madrid for an initial €103 million (£87 million; $111 million at current rates), which could rise by a further 30 percent if fees are met, but their bond has remained.

That much became clear when Bellingham scored what turned out to be the only goal against Serbia in Sunday’s group opener, with the pair sharing a joint celebration with a nod to the ‘Wolf Crew’, a group of England team members and support staff who play ‘Wolf’ . – a role-playing game related to ‘Mafia’, where players are assigned as villagers or wolves, with each group trying to deceive the other.


Bellingham and Alexander-Arnold show off their ‘Wolf’ party (Ozan Kose/AFP via Getty Images)

Alexander-Arnold is also close to Aaron Ramsdale, the reserve goalkeeper, having played together when he played for England Under-17s.

“I remember one time I went into my room, I opened the door and saw a guy from Stoke come in,” Alexander-Arnold previously said of his first meeting with Ramsdale. ‘A goalkeeper I don’t know. I’m thinking, ‘Who the hell have they kept me here?’.

‘Because I’m not good with new people. I’m not good with new people at all. I have a hard time opening up, so when I don’t know people… I don’t mean it, I just can’t open up, I can’t be myself with them.

“But as soon as we started talking, we started laughing, (it was) ‘blah blah blah’, we carried on like a house on fire.”

Alexander-Arnold and Ramsdale held Harry Potter marathons in their room and watched a new film from the series every night. That relationship has only grown stronger since their roommate days.

Southgate’s squad for Euro 2024 includes 12 players who have not previously been to a major tournament with England, although many have been involved in international camps with their current colleagues.

There is plenty to talk about for Kobbie Mainoo, 19, and Cole Palmer, 22, two Manchester-born players competing in their first national competition at senior level, while Brighton & Hove Albion centre-back Lewis Dunk, last week said he has struck up a friendship with Southgate’s third-choice goalkeeper, Dean Henderson.

Adam Wharton also commented on his first tournament with the full England squad how “all the boys made it very easy” for him to integrate. “They all like to talk,” Wharton said.

Wharton is joined in the squad by three of his Crystal Palace teammates: Henderson, Marc Guehi and Eberechi Eze.


New guys like Adam Wharton have quickly established themselves (Richard Pelham/Getty Images)

Guehi is close friends with Chelsea’s Conor Gallagher, with the pair coming through the London club’s academy, loaned out together to Swansea City in the 2019/20 season and also both being part of the England Under-17 team that won their World Cup won. 2017 – as did Manchester City’s Phil Foden – and spent the time in Germany racing against each other in the computer game Mario Kart.

Arsenal’s Declan Rice – another London player – is something of a social butterfly within the camp and has struck up a friendship with another player, Brentford’s Ivan Toney. They recently appeared on Lions Den, a show produced in the English camp, and talked about how close they have become.

When asked who he would take with him to a desert island, Rice replied: “It’s an easy answer, the man next to me. We’re on the same wavelength, we have the same interests, like the same music. We have the same hobbies. We just get along really well. So definitely Ivan.”

Toney added, “I don’t think we would worry about getting stuck, we would just joke around.”

Forward Toney is part of a group called the ‘Bolo Boys’, a slang term for being muscular, which includes Rice, Joe Gomez, Eze and Ezri Konsa, while other players dip in and out.

Other groups also exist. Bellingham and Alexander-Arnold were part of a group called the ‘Sheriffs’, which included James Maddison and Jordan Henderson, both of whom failed to make the final squad for this European Championship. Another collective – the ‘Avengers’, the name given to a WhatsApp group of players – was effectively disbanded when three members, Jack Grealish, Maddison and Ben Chilwell, were left out of Southgate’s 26.

New players add a different dynamic to the environment in Germany.

Mainoo, the Manchester United teenage midfielder who was called up after an impressive debut season that included scoring the decisive goal in the FA Cup final against Manchester City last month, pokes fun at his city rivals Foden, Kyle Walker and John Stones.

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Stones also enjoyed exciting his teammates. The City centre-back sat alongside Newcastle full-back Kieran Trippier at the back of the England media room in Blankenhain and troubled goalkeeper Jordan Pickford as he darted against a member of the media.

And as Bellingham walked through the mixed zone after the match against Serbia in Gelsenkirchen, where several cameras and reporters had gathered, Stones joked: “En Espanol?” (“In Spanish?”) as Bellingham walked towards the team bus, which made the Madrid midfielder laugh.

Manchester United left-back Luke Shaw, who made the squad despite not playing for club or country since February 18 after suffering a calf injury, is also popular, along with Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka.

Players in Southgate’s squad spent time this summer hanging out by the pool, playing card games Uno, basketball and padel, or practicing with a golf simulator and an indoor putting mat.


England players can fine-tune their putting between games (Richard Pelham/Getty Images)

Another game that went well was football, where players played against each other during their first training session.

Harry Kane, the captain, teamed up with former Tottenham Hotspur teammate Trippier and the pair remained undefeated, with their final game refereed by Southgate. Other combinations included Stones and Walker, Bellingham and Alexander-Arnold, Konsa and Saka, and Eze and striker Ollie Watkins.

While the inflatable unicorn toy, which became famous at the World Cup in Russia six years ago, has yet to return and capture the imagination of supporters in England, the camp is a happy one so far.

Results always help dictate the mood, but so far Southgate has successfully continued to create a culture where players want to take on international duties.

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(Top photo: Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images)