This footballer left his club to join Love Island

Summer is often the busiest time of the year for football clubs, both on and off the pitch. While players have to train and play friendly matches, the club managers are responsible for dealing with the contracts, either for signing new players or for releasing old ones. However, the current situation plaguing Halifax Town is rather unorthodox - the club will enter its preseason training without one of its stars.

According to Reuters, Halifax's footballer Jamie Allen is set to enter the dating reality TV show villa in the following weeks. Allen will appear as one of four new bombshells, who are tasked with troubling the original contestants in the much-awaited Casa Amor challenge.

Allen just signed a new contract with his club

According to the Dailymail, Allen's decision to star in Love Island came only a month after he and Halifax struck up a new contract, which will see the striker last at the club until 2024. The 27-year-old player will take part in filming for the ITV series just weeks before Halifax ramps up its season in the National League, the fifth-tier league of English football. However, the club's bosses haven't made any decision regarding Allen's future when he returns from the show.

The Yorkshire club announced Allen's departure on Twitter:

'Jamie Allen has decided to join the cast of Love Island 2022, making his intentions clear that the opportunity is very important to him. The matter will be reviewed on his return.'

Allen's move, however, got him into troubles with some Halifax fans. One fan joked: 'Arsenal fans praying Ben White doesn't get any ideas...'

Another tweeted, mocking Allen's decision: 'One of our promotion rivals losing a player to Love Island is the news we didn’t know we needed today. What a league.'

According to SkyNews, Allen is not the first footballer to enter Love Island since the ITV show aired in 2015. In fact, he will join the squad of Finn Tapp and Dennon Lewis as football stars who appear on Love Island's screen. Finn Tapp, who played for MK Dons and Oxford City, even ended up winning the popular dating show in 2020.

Throughout his career so far, Allen has proved a promising striker. The Preston native began his career at Fleetwood Town in 2012 before being loaned to the likes of Barrow and AFC Fylde. Allen then made 60 appearances during his tenure at Southport, before signing a contract with Halifax Town in 2019. On June 9 this year, Halifax Town announced he had signed a new contract, adding that Jamie is 'committed to his future at the club', which is now put into question with Allen's entry into Love Island.

Allen is one of the new four bombshells entering Love Island

As the reality dating show is nearing its end, the arrival of new bombshells is expected to make the game more interesting. According to SkyNews, side from Allen, other troublemakers to join the 2022 line-up include Reece Ford, Nathalia Campos, and Lacey Edwards.

Existing couples Adam Collard and Paige Thorne, Gemma Owen and Luca Bish, and Andrew Le Page and Tasha Ghouri will need to stand the test of the newcomers.

Discussing why he's joining Love Island, Jamie told The Sun:

'Now I am 27, I want to find someone, have a genuine connection, and fall in love so Love Island is the perfect place for me to find that.'

The Halifax striker described himself as having 'good vibes':

'I am just going to be myself, good vibes, good energy, get along with anyone, the boys, the girls but the main objective is to find someone so I am just going to be myself in the villa.'

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