Lynks has released a tongue in cheek “accidental” England World Cup parody track titled ‘Kick The Ball!’, which has arrived just ahead of England’s clash with Croatia tonight.
The new song was released on Wednesday June 17, coinciding with England’s opening Group L match at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, taking place at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, the home ground of the Dallas Cowboys.
Lynks previewed the track on social media last week, joking that they might have “accidentally written the best football song of all time”.
Titled ‘Kick The Ball!’, the track is built around chant like hooks designed for stadium crowds and humorously breaks down the basics of football while imagining England’s route to victory.
“Kick the ball into the goal/ That’s the game, it’s called football/ Kick the ball into the goal/ That’s the net between those poles,” the chorus repeats.
The song also includes playful lines such as: “Three lions are bound to win, because lions are stronger than human men”, alongside “Come on men… and some women/ It’s time to show the world that no one kicks like Britain/ Except for all the times we tried to win and we didn’t.”
“One day I just had the idea to write a football song from the POV of someone who knows nothing about football,” Lynks explained. “I also thought there was something funny about me, like, ‘reverse pinkwashing’. As in, instead of some straight artist being like ‘I LOVE THE GAYS’ for pride month, a gay artist doing ‘I LOVE FOOTBALL’ for straight pride (aka the World Cup).”
They added: “I think it’s basically a joke that’s gotten a bit out of hand… I posted the idea to my story and my DMs blew up with people begging me to do it. That was 12 days ago. Since then I wrote and produced the song, got it up on streaming, shot a music video… It’s been a bit mad!”
The England vs Croatia fixture is scheduled for 9pm BST tonight, with ITV1 beginning coverage from 8pm. The match carries added historical weight, as Croatia previously ended England’s World Cup run in the 2018 semi finals and also defeated them during qualification for Euro 2008.
In wider World Cup music news, the official soundtrack for the 2026 tournament has also been revealed, featuring artists including The Rolling Stones, Shakira and Stormzy.
Other football themed releases include JJ Bull’s LCD Soundsystem inspired parody ‘The Very Unofficial Scotland World Cup Song’, as well as tracks from Belle & Sebastian and a collaboration between Susan Boyle, Franz Ferdinand and Irn Bru titled ‘We’re Made In Scotland From Girders’.
Meanwhile, ‘Three Lions’ is set for a 30th anniversary re release from Baddiel, Skinner & The Lightning Seeds, while John Barnes has shared archival recordings of his iconic rap from ‘World in Motion’.
