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USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Caroline Darney

Soccer player Jamie Allen takes page out of Jamie Tartt’s playbook and leaves camp to join Love Island UK

Halifax Town football club will be down a player in pre-season camp as forward Jamie Allen has departed training to join the cast of Love Island UK. For the uninitiated, Love Island UK is a dating show where singles flock to a sun-soaked location, share a villa and attempt to make a love connection with other fit and toned singles.

Allen just signed an extension in June that would keep him with Halifax Town — a fifth-tier pro club nestled between Leeds and Manchester — through the 2022-23 season after joining the squad in 2019.

If this story feels slightly familiar, it might be because it’s a plot line in Apple TV’s Emmy-winning hit show, Ted Lasso. In the season 2 premiere, bad boy Jamie Tartt (Phil Dunster) abandoned Manchester City and was unceremoniously dumped from Lust Conquers All, a clear nod to ITV’s long-running reality show.

The club doesn’t seem particularly chuffed about losing their forward, releasing a statement on Twitter regarding his departure.

Not sure how good Allen is at football, but he better hope his banter is up to par if he wants to stick around in the Villa.

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