It's Coming Home / Three Lions: England Football Meme

Overview Fans sing "It's Coming Home" both earnestly, claiming the World Cup trophy will come back to England, and ironically to mock their own optimism after decades without a title1. During the 2018 FIFA World Cup the chant moved online as a running joke about English delusion, with accounts posting it after even minor wins or random coincidences7.

Image macros of captain Harry Kane and manager Gareth Southgate circulated on Twitter, including an edit of Southgate onto the cover of Drake's "Nothing Was The Same," a nod to the Drake song "Hold On, We're Going Home"7. Video edits splice the Three Lions chorus into unrelated scenes from The Wolf of Wall Street5and Friends6.

Separate threads strung together coincidences between 1966, the year England last won the World Cup, and 2018, with each tweet closing on the slogan2. Gallery Origin & Background Platform Song / Twitter (viral spread) Creator David Baddiel and Frank Skinner Date 1996 "Three Lions" was recorded by The Lightning Seeds in 1996, with lyrics by comedians David Baddiel and Frank Skinner from the Fantasy Football League TV show1.

The song was commissioned for the European Championships that England hosted that summer, and its lyrics cover both the 1966 World Cup win and decades of near-misses that followed3. A rewritten version arrived for the 1998 France World Cup and outsold the official England team song1.

Through the 2000s and 2010s the chorus returned as a stadium chant whenever England did well in a tournament1. How It Spread As England advanced through the group stage and to the quarterfinals on July 5, 2018, Twitter users posted side-by-side coincidences between 1966 and 2018 that closed with "It's coming home"7.

Image macros of Kane and Southgate circulated widely, including a shot of Kane holding a phone and an edit of Southgate onto Drake's "Nothing Was The Same" album cover7. @LTJ_Northy spliced the chorus into a scene from The Wolf of Wall Street on July 2, 20185, and @TheSpainTrain cut it into a scene from Friends on July 4, 20186.

Both posts collected hundreds of retweets6. England lost 2-1 to Croatia in the semifinal on July 11, 2018, which flipped the chant into "They're going home" posts covered by Time the next day2.

Accounts including @brfootball and @shotongoal247 posted versions of the inversion to tens of thousands of retweets2. Timeline 1996 The Lightning Seeds release "Three Lions" for Euro 1996, with lyrics by David Baddiel and Frank Skinner.

1998 The band releases an updated version for the 1998 France World Cup, which outsells the official England team song. 2018-07-02 @LTJ_Northy posts a video edit splicing the Three Lions chorus into a scene from The Wolf of Wall Street.