Footie’s strangest friendships embrace Paris 2024 Olympics hero and an NBA icon

Across the country, Brits were jumping up-and-down as Keely Hodgkinson pulled away from the pack during the 800m final, storming down the home straight to collect a much deserved gold medal.

Few were quite as happy as Lioness and Manchester United star Ella Toone, who has been best mates with the runner since school.

Hodgkinson was a couple of years below the Wigan-born attacking midfielder at Fred Longworth High School, although the two knew each other after both unsurprisingly excelling at a number of sports.

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In fact, Keely was nicknamed ‘mini Ella’ due to her athletic prowess, with the future gold-medal winner excelling at swimming, as well as unsurprisingly being not too shabby at running as well.

Speaking to the Daily Mirror in 2022, Hodgkinson revealed that the two “got on really well” during their time at school together, despite the age difference. And in a wholesome moment, Toone sent the victorious runner a celebratory video.

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During her interview with the BBC, Tooney, as she is known by fans, wished her ex-schoolmate congratulations and hoped she would “enjoy the celebrations”.

An emotional Hodgkinson reflected on the video by saying how great it was to see two young women from the same home town be successful on the world stage.

Ella Toone and Keely Hodgkinson aren’t the only sports stars to share an unlikely friendship, however. Let’s take a look at some of the weirdest sporting mates.

Jordon Henderson and Lebron James

One is an all-time great, who transcends the sport he plays and as an army of fans all over the globe. The other is Lebron James.

While Hendo and the basketball icon aren’t known to spend their time hanging out, the unlikely pair have traded a number of compliments over the years.

James, who is a Liverpool fan and owns a small stake in the club, has described the former Red as one of his favourite players, and suggested him for the cover of FIFA 16.

In an interview with Maya Jama in 2020, the L.A Lakers star said that he enjoyed seeing Henderson score his first goal for England against Ukraine, calling the moment “unique”.

Some fans speculated that the power forward was just being polite, however, and hadn’t actually seen the goal.

The former Sunderland and Al-Ettifaq midfielder has complimented James’s basketball skills too, as well as commenting fire emojis on an Instagram pic of the American in a Liverpool shirt.

Kevin Petersen and Frank Lampard

When KP wasn’t smashing sixes for England, he apparently was rubbing shoulders with some of Chelsea’s biggest names.

As well as hanging out with blues icon Frank Lampard, the batsman boasted that he was mates with captain John Terry and fullback Ashley Cole too.

Super Frank was Petersen’s favourite blue it seems, however.

The South Africa born cricketer demanded then owner Roman Abramovich offer the star a new contract in 2013, and supported the former West Ham man when he became blues boss too.

Gary Lineker and Willie Thorne

Match of the Day host Gary Lineker and snooker legend Willie Thorne were as thick as thieves. The former Barcelona man and Mr Maximum, as Thorne was nicknamed, both hailed from Leicester and shared a love for potting a few balls.

The pair were known to hang out regularly, and the underwear-donning presenter even played the role of best man at Thorne’s wedding.

When the snooker-legend tragically passed away in 2020, Lineker tweeted his condolences: “Deeply, deeply saddened to hear that my friend Willie Thorne has passed away. One of life’s great characters.

“A marvellous snooker player and a lovely man, who’s potted his final black much too soon. RIP Willie.”