The presence of Adrian Chiles at Liam Payne’s funeral this week might have been a somewhat unexpected one – particularly as he arrived wearing a sports jacket emblazoned with West Brom football club’s logo.
However, what fans might not realise is that Adrian and the late pop singer went way back.
Following Liam’s death last month, Adrian paid tribute on his BBC Radio 5 Live show, speaking about how they bonded over football.
“I got to know him when he first did X Factor,” Adrian told his listeners (via Sports Bible). “He came up to me and said ‘up the Albion’ – he was a West Brom fan.
“Just as a sign as to how massive he was, I remember we snuck him into a Boxing Day game and I think his mum and dad came and sat with me.”
Although Liam was successfully hidden “up in the commentary gantry so he didn’t get bothered”, he eventually rumbled himself.
“Then a friend of mine texted me to ask ‘why are West Brom trending number one on Twitter?’,” Adrian recalled.
“I went, ‘well it could be because Liam Payne is here and he tweeted he was here and the whole world went mad for it’.”
Back in 2022, Liam competed in the Soccer Aid charity game, declaring himself a “huge West Brom supporter”, even though he didn’t get to see them play “as often as I would like”.
Liam was laid to rest in Buckinghamshire on Wednesday afternoon, in a funeral ceremony attended by all four of his former One Direction bandmates.
Also at the service were 1D mentor Simon Cowell and Liam’s former partner Cheryl Tweedy, with whom he shared a seven-year-old son, Bear.