Jack Grealish left red-faced as awkward sponsor deal emerges after England Euro snub

Manchester City ace Jack Grealish has been left red-faced after it emerged he is the star of an awkward Hellmann’s Euro 2024 advertising campaign. The condiments company is the tournament’s official BBQ partner and used an image of the winger holding up a bottle of mayonnaise to promote the partnership. And to make matters worse for Grealish, the slogan the firm opted to use says “Up your game”.

Grealish became the most expensive British footballer of all-time when he joined Manchester City from Aston Villa three years ago.

And he has gone on to win three Premier League titles, the Champions League, the Club World Cup and the FA Cup during his time at the Etihad Stadium. But his recent performances for City and England weren’t enough to convince Southgate to take him to Germany.

Grealish was included in the Three Lions’ 33-man provisional squad last month. But when Southgate was forced to cut his squad to 26 players, the Citizens star was purged.

Fans couldn’t resist pointing out the irony of the Hellmann’s slogan after the company had hand-selected Grealish to represent their brand in videos and images. And a video used to sell the brand, which has been pinned to the top of Grealish’s own X page, shows the player joking around with Laura Woods.

“He loves a barbecue, him,” laughs Grealish before listing his dream barbecue guests as Paul Gascoigne, John McGinn, Kyle Walker and Zinedine Zidane.”

Grealish is dressed in an England shirt in the video and ends it by winking at the camera. And the 28-year-old will now have plenty of time on his hands to enjoy some barbecue food over the coming weeks.

Southgate was asked about his decision to leave Grealish and Tottenham playmaker James Maddison behind for the tournament as he spoke to the media after announcing his final squad.

And the manager explained: “All the players took it respectfully. All players are going to believe they should be in, that’s why they’re top players. They have that mindset.

“The fact is, we’ve got some players who have been playing extremely well all season and we feel other players have had stronger seasons – particularly in the last six months or so.

“We’re blessed with options in attacking areas, all offering something slightly different. Madders and Jack give us something different as well, so they’re tough calls.

“We’ve gone over it and over it as staff to try and be fair. We back our decisions but we recognise we could have gone a different route. Both boys are big characters and great to work with.”