• Palace, Nike and England have released a World Cup campaign film starring Wayne Rooney and Jill Scott
• The film takes English football fandom from modern match-day culture all the way back to Stonehenge
• Wayne Rooney recites Shakespeare’s Richard II as the film celebrates English football, history and national identity
• The Palace x Nike x England collection includes football apparel, streetwear and the Nike Cryoshot Air Speed M
• The collection launched through Palace on June 12, followed by a wider Nike release on June 16

With the 2026 FIFA World Cup now in full swing, brands have been going all out to get our attention, but Palace and Nike may have just delivered one of the more unexpected campaigns of the tournament. Teaming up with England for a new World Cup collection, the two have brought Wayne Rooney and former Lioness Jill Scott along for a film that takes everything we know about English football culture and gives it a very Palace-style twist.

And when we say unexpected, we mean Wayne Rooney standing there in an Elizabethan ruff, holding a skull and reciting Shakespeare’s Richard II while wearing a Palace x Nike x England varsity jacket.

From there, things only get stranger as the film moves through different periods of English history, packed with football fans, pubs, match-day rituals and plenty of British humour before somehow finding its way all the way back to Stonehenge.

It sounds like a lot to squeeze into one football campaign, and it is, but that’s also what makes it work. Rather than giving us another perfectly polished World Cup commercial filled with slow-motion skills and dramatic speeches, Palace and Nike have gone for something that feels much closer to the messy, loud and slightly ridiculous side of being an England supporter. And with a full Palace x Nike x England collection arriving alongside it, there’s quite a bit more going on here than Rooney suddenly discovering his inner Shakespeare.

If there was ever a campaign that served up a full English breakfast of football culture, this might be it. Palace and Nike bring together Wayne Rooney, Jill Scott and hundreds of England supporters for a film that moves between the England we know today and the country’s past, eventually travelling so far back that we somehow end up at Stonehenge.

Titled This England and directed by Burnermunde, the film moves at the kind of fast, slightly chaotic pace you’d expect from Palace. Pubs, weddings, Sunday-league football, packed streets and flashes of past tournament memories are all thrown together, making the whole thing feel less like a traditional World Cup advert and more like a very English fever dream.

And then there’s Rooney, who spends much of the film reciting Shakespeare’s Richard II while dressed in an Elizabethan ruff and pieces from the Palace x Nike x England collection. It’s a wonderfully strange bit of casting, but having one of the defining faces of England’s footballing past delivering one of the country’s most famous pieces of literature somehow brings the two sides of English culture together.

Former Lioness Jill Scott gets an equally memorable role, appearing as the film takes us all the way back to Stonehenge and suggests the ancient monument may have actually been an early set of football goalposts. It’s completely ridiculous, of course, but Palace delivers the joke with such confidence that for a few seconds you almost start wondering whether the history books have been keeping something from us.

Behind all the Shakespeare, Stonehenge and Sunday-league madness, though, This England is really a celebration of the people and traditions that have made football such a huge part of English life. It doesn’t try to make the game look perfect or overly glamorous; instead, Palace and Nike give us the pubs, the chants, the nostalgia, the humour and that familiar tournament optimism that somehow returns every four years — because, as every England supporter will happily tell you, this might finally be the year.

As strange as Rooney reciting Shakespeare might be, Palace, Nike and England coming together actually makes a lot of sense. Palace has always worn its London identity proudly, pulling inspiration from the city’s skateboarding, music, streetwear and football cultures, so bringing the Three Lions into that world feels less like a random World Cup collaboration and more like something that has been building for a while.

That relationship with Nike properly kicked into gear with the P90 collection, a throwback to the loud football style of the early 2000s filled with tracksuits, jerseys, bold graphics and plenty of Total 90 nostalgia. But the partnership went much further than clothes and trainers with Manor Place in South London, a free community space where a skatepark sits directly above an underground football cage, alongside areas for art, events and emerging creatives.

In other words, football was already right at the heart of Palace and Nike’s relationship long before England officially joined the party.

And that’s ultimately why This England feels different from your usual World Cup campaign. Instead of simply sticking the Three Lions next to Palace’s Tri-Ferg and calling it a day, the collaboration leans into the shirts, the history, the local pitches, the pubs, the humour and that wonderfully dangerous belief that football might finally be coming home — taking everything that makes an English summer of football feel so unmistakably English and giving it the Palace treatment.

Of course, all that Shakespeare and Stonehenge isn’t just there to get us excited about England’s World Cup chances, because there’s a full Palace x Nike x England collection to go with it. The range mixes Palace’s streetwear style with classic England football references, bringing together jerseys, tracksuits, graphic T-shirts, headwear and outerwear, including a rather lovely varsity jacket covered in co-branded details and Three Lions imagery.

There’s plenty here for anyone who likes their football shirts with a little more personality, but one of the most interesting pieces actually sits on your feet. Palace has taken Nike’s old Air Speed M football boot and turned it into the Cryoshot Air Speed M, wrapping the studs inside a clear outsole so you get the look of a proper football boot without having to walk around town sounding like you’re heading down the tunnel at Wembley.

The collection first landed through Palace on June 12 before receiving a wider Nike and select-retailer release on June 16, just in time for World Cup fever to properly take hold. And while England supporters will ultimately have to wait and see what happens on the pitch, Palace and Nike have at least made sure they can look the part while convincing themselves, once again, that football really might be coming home.