Calendar Calvin Klein made a comeback with a new face. In early November, the brand launched the Icon Cotton Stretch campaign with Real Madrid and England midfielder Jude Bellingham. The ad quickly went viral.Almost 4 million likes on his post and 130,000 comments. The ad was quite explicit, and many started saying the brand sexualizes its models.
The reaction was mixed. Some fans and people in the football world felt that shooting such an explicit ad was not appropriate for a professional athlete. Toni Kroos left a comment under the post: "WTF" and got nearly 700,000 likes, while Lucas Vázquez replied, "Okayyyyy".
Even his Real Madrid teammates couldn't resist. Militão and Vinícius jokingly trolled Jude so hard in the team chat that he left and asked them to stop joking around. Jude himself had a sharp reply for the critics: "Does the ad stop me from training and performing for Real Madrid? I'm proud of these photos, and I'm not going to pretend to be someone else just because some people don't like it."
Bellingham has strong arguments. He already modeled for SKIMS in 2024 and carries himself on the pitch with the same confidence he shows in the studio. Footballers have been advertising underwear for years: Beckham worked with Armani, Ronaldo has his own CR7 brand, and in spring 2026 Rafinha became the face of Calvin Klein. Besides, the brand has spent decades building its image around the nude body, from Tom Hintnaus in 1982 to today's stars.
In my opinion, I don't see anything bad here. Jude has a model-like appearance, and it's perfectly normal to monetize that. It's one thing if he played badly on the pitch but still appeared in ads. But Jude performs equally well on the field and in commercials. Remember Ronaldo or Beckham? They were also Real Madrid stars with plenty of contracts. So Jude is doing everything right.
So the debate is less about Bellingham and more about the line between sport and show business. For some, a footballer must be a model of restraint; for others, monetizing appearance is just as natural as talent. As long as Bellingham proves his worth on the pitch, the latter camp looks more convincing.
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