Nike's World Cup advert features Cole Palmer despite England omitting him from squad

Nike’s high-profile World Cup advertising campaign has drawn attention for an awkward reason: Chelsea and England midfielder Cole Palmer appears in the sportswear giant’s six-minute pre-tournament film wearing an England shirt with the number 20, despite being one of the more notable absentees from Thomas Tuchel’s 26-man squad for the tournament in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

The advert, released this week, features a roster of global football stars including Cristiano Ronaldo, Vinicius Jr, Kylian Mbappé and Erling Haaland, alongside icons Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Didier Drogba and Eric Cantona. LeBron James, Kim Kardashian, Travis Scott and Hollywood actor Channing Tatum — who appears as Haaland’s stunt double — also feature in the production.

Palmer’s inclusion stands out given that Tuchel named him among the surprise omissions when finalising England’s squad. The England head coach addressed the difficult calls in a press conference, saying: “Very difficult decisions, painful conversations. Difficult for the players, difficult to explain to the players.”

Tuchel elaborated on the selection logic, explaining that squad balance and positional depth were the determining factors rather than any shortfall in individual quality. “Did they do anything wrong? No. Could they be in camp? Yes. 100% sure. But for some of them, it is just the amount of players in a certain position,” he said. “We didn’t want to play the players out of position so much and we wanted to give them a clear role and it comes with difficult and maybe hard choices in the build up to the tournament.”

England open their World Cup campaign against Croatia in Texas, with further group-stage fixtures against Ghana and Panama to follow. Nike, which supplies kits for several nations competing in the tournament, will be hoping the advert’s star power outweighs the continuity error that England supporters were quick to flag online.