LONDON (AP) — He played soccer with Vinícius Júnior in Brazil and walked the runway with pal Joe Burrow in Paris.
Now, he’s bringing the Griddy back to London.
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Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson (18), left, talks to head coach Kevin O'Connell during a practice session at The Grove in Watford, England Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson (18) looks on during NFL football practice at The Grove in Watford, England Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson speaks during a news conference after NFL football practice at The Grove in Watford, England, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson (18) catches a pass over Houston Texans cornerback Derek Stingley Jr. (24) during the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson warms up before an NFL football game against the San Francisco 49ers, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson (18) celebrates a touchdown during the first half of an NFL football game against the Green Bay Packers, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024, in Green Bay, Wis. (AP Photo/Matt Ludtke)
Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson (18) celebrates a touchdown during the first half of an NFL football game against the Green Bay Packers, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024, in Green Bay, Wis. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson, right, scores a touchdown past Green Bay Packers cornerback Keisean Nixon (25) during the first half of an NFL football game Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024, in Green Bay, Wis. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson (18) celebrates after catching a touchdown pass during the first half of an NFL football game against the Houston Texans, Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Bruce Kluckhohn)
In other words, Justin Jefferson is right at home.
The Minnesota Vikings receiver is embracing the international spotlight and becoming a global star at the right time as the NFL adds more games in foreign cities.
The undefeated Vikings arrived in London on Friday morning ahead of their game against the New York Jets at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday.
“Just to play in a whole different country, around a whole new fan base, around people that don’t get to see you play — it’s very cool,” Jefferson said at the team's hotel in Watford, England.
“We’re the only country that really plays the sport the way we do. Expanding it and getting some fans in other countries is very cool.”
London is just the latest port of call for Jefferson, who visited Rio de Janeiro in 2023 to spend time with Real Madrid star Vinícius. They played soccer and foot-volley, but Jefferson also learned about Brazilian cuisine and Black artists in the bohemian Santa Teresa neighborhood. At the end of the trip, he wiped away a tear when reflecting on the experience.
In June, Jefferson hit Paris a couple of weeks after signing a four-year extension — the richest contract in NFL history for a non-quarterback. Jefferson and Burrow — their 2019 season at LSU ended with the national championship — got dressed up to walk the Vogue World 2024 runway, the trip all detailed by the fashion magazine.
The 25-year-old Louisiana native also toured Rome this summer with his parents and one of his older brothers as part of a promotion with a travel company.
That was followed by a starring role in the Netflix documentary series “Receiver,” in which Jefferson opens up about his alter ego “Jets,” his love of Sour Patch Kids candy and his tight relationship with his parents and brothers.
It's all marketing gold for a league that hopes to play as many as 16 international games each year. Brazil hosted its first NFL game this season. Spain gets its first game next season, to be played in Real Madrid's iconic and newly renovated Santiago Bernabéu Stadium.
“Justin Jefferson is a great example of the type of young athlete in the NFL that we would like to make a face of the NFL internationally and especially in the U.K. and obviously with the Vikings being active here, that makes sense,” said Henry Hodgson, general manager of the NFL’s UK office.
The league's “global markets program” gives teams rights in selected countries to sign commercial deals and hold events for fans. The Vikings have the U.K. as one of their markets — Canada is the other.
Jefferson said playing a game in Brazil would be “phenomenal.”
“I feel like having one in Italy would be a fire place to have one. Paris would be a fire place to have one,” he added. “Wherever, it will be a different vibe and a different culture just being in a different country.”
Jefferson, the NFL's co-leader in TD receptions (4) entering Week 5, made a great first impression in the U.K. two years ago when the Vikings beat the New Orleans Saints 28-25. He had 10 receptions for 147 yards and a rushing touchdown — and of course he hit the Griddy.
“It's a blessing. To go from my mom telling me I need a touchdown celebration to now the whole world is doing the celebration — kids doing it left and right, and it's still going five years after I first hit it,” he said.
He has something planned for Sunday in the end zone, but “I just can’t let you know right now.”
The Vikings are running an ad on a large video screen above the entrance to the busy Euston Underground Station in London. Jefferson features prominently in it as does rejuvenated quarterback Sam Darnold.
Jefferson's Vikings jersey was the No. 2 best seller in the U.K. in September, the league said, second only to that of Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
The league recruited Jefferson as a global flag football ambassador in 2023.
“When players lean into that international travel and obviously enjoy the idea of both visiting overseas and playing overseas, it does make the fanbase like them," Hodgson said.
“Obviously, it helps that he’s a big character, a fantastic player on the field and someone that fans, regardless of what team you support, he’s one of those players in the NFL that people look out for because he’s an exciting player to watch.”
AP Pro Football Writer Dave Campbell contributed from Eagan, Minnesota.
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/NFL
Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson (18), left, talks to head coach Kevin O'Connell during a practice session at The Grove in Watford, England Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson (18) looks on during NFL football practice at The Grove in Watford, England Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson speaks during a news conference after NFL football practice at The Grove in Watford, England, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson (18) catches a pass over Houston Texans cornerback Derek Stingley Jr. (24) during the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson warms up before an NFL football game against the San Francisco 49ers, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson (18) celebrates a touchdown during the first half of an NFL football game against the Green Bay Packers, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024, in Green Bay, Wis. (AP Photo/Matt Ludtke)
Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson (18) celebrates a touchdown during the first half of an NFL football game against the Green Bay Packers, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024, in Green Bay, Wis. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson, right, scores a touchdown past Green Bay Packers cornerback Keisean Nixon (25) during the first half of an NFL football game Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024, in Green Bay, Wis. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson (18) celebrates after catching a touchdown pass during the first half of an NFL football game against the Houston Texans, Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Bruce Kluckhohn)
MAGDEBURG, Germany (AP) — Germans on Saturday mourned a violent attack and their shaken sense of security after a Saudi doctor intentionally drove a black BMW into a Christmas market teeming with holiday shoppers, killing at least two people, including a small child, and injuring at least 60 others.
Authorities arrested a 50-year-old man at the site of the attack Friday evening and took him into custody for questioning. He has lived in Germany for nearly two decades, practicing medicine, officials said.
Several German media outlets identified the man as Taleb A., withholding his last name in line with privacy laws, and reported that he was a specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy.
There were still no answers Saturday as to what caused him to drive into a crowd in the eastern German city of Magdeburg.
Describing himself as a former Muslim, he shared dozens of tweets and retweets daily focusing on anti-Islam themes, criticizing the religion and congratulating Muslims who left the faith.
He also accused German authorities of failing to do enough to combat what he said was the “Islamism of Europe.” Some described him as an activist who helped Saudi women flee their homeland. He has also voiced support for the far-right and anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
Recently, he seemed focused on his theory that German authorities have been targeting Saudi asylum seekers.
Prominent German terrorism expert Peter Neumann said he had yet to come across a suspect in an act of mass violence with that profile.
“After 25 years in this ‘business’ you think nothing could surprise you anymore. But a 50-year-old Saudi ex-Muslim who lives in East Germany, loves the AfD and wants to punish Germany for its tolerance towards Islamists — that really wasn’t on my radar, " Neumann, the director of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalization and Political Violence at King’s College London, wrote on X.
The violence shocked Germany and the city, bringing its mayor to the verge of tears and marring a festive event that’s part of a centuries-old German tradition. It prompted several other German towns to cancel their weekend Christmas markets as a precaution and out of solidarity with Magdeburg’s loss. Berlin, where a truck attack on a Christmas market in 2016 killed 12 people, kept its markets open but has increased its police presence at them.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Interior Minister Nancy Faeser were due to travel to Magdeburg on Saturday, and a memorial service is to take place in the city cathedral in the evening.
“My thoughts are with the victims and their relatives," Scholz wrote on X. "We stand beside them and beside the people of Magdeburg.”
Magdeburg is a city of about 240,000 people, west of Berlin, that serves as Saxony-Anhalt’s capital. Friday’s attack came eight years after an Islamic extremist drove a truck into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin, killing 13 people and injuring many others. The attacker was killed days later in a shootout in Italy.
Verified bystander footage distributed by the German news agency dpa showed the suspect’s arrest at a tram stop in the middle of the road. A nearby police officer pointing a handgun at the man shouted at him as he lay prone, his head arched up slightly. Other officers swarmed around the suspect and took him into custody.
The two people confirmed dead were an adult and a toddler, but officials said additional deaths couldn't be ruled out because 15 people had been seriously injured.
“As things stand, he is a lone perpetrator, so that as far as we know there is no further danger to the city," Saxony-Anhalt's governor, Reiner Haseloff, told reporters. “Every human life that has fallen victim to this attack is a terrible tragedy and one human life too many.”
Authorities identified the suspect as a 50-year-old Saudi doctor who moved to Germany in 2006 and who had been practicing medicine in Bernburg, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Magdeburg.
Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry condemned the attack on X but did not mention the suspect’s connection to the kingdom.
Christmas markets are a German holiday tradition cherished since the Middle Ages, now successfully exported to much of the Western world.
Hours after Friday's tragedy, the wail of sirens clashed with the market’s festive ornaments, stars and leafy garlands.
Magdeburg resident Dorin Steffen told dpa that she was at a concert in a nearby church when she heard the sirens. The cacophony was so loud “you had to assume that something terrible had happened," she said, calling it "a dark day” for the city.
The attack reverberated far beyond Magdeburg, with Haseloff calling it a catastrophe for the city, state and country. He said flags would be lowered to half-staff in Saxony-Anhalt and that the federal government planned to do the same.
“It is really one of the worst things one can imagine, particularly in connection with what a Christmas market should bring," the governor said.
Aboubakr reported from Cairo and Gera from Warsaw, Poland.
Two firefighters walk through a cordoned-off area near a Christmas Market, after a car drove into a crowd in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
A damaged car sits with its doors open after a driver plowed into a busy Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, early Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (Hendrik Schmidt/dpa via AP)
Police stand at a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, early Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024, after a driver plowed into a group of people at the market late Friday. (Hendrik Schmidt/dpa via AP)
Police stand at a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, early Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024, after a driver plowed into a group of people at the market late Friday. (Hendrik Schmidt/dpa via AP)
A damaged car sits with its doors open after a driver plowed into a busy Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, early Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (Hendrik Schmidt/dpa via AP)
Police officers and police emergency vehicles are seen at the Christmas market in Magdeburg after a driver plowed into a busy Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (Matthias Bein/dpa via AP)
Security guards stand in front of a cordoned-off Christmas Market after a car crashed into a crowd of people, in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday early morning, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
A barrier tape and police vehicles are seen in front of the entrance to the Christmas market in Magdeburg after a driver plowed into a busy Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (Sebastian Kahnert/dpa via AP)
The car that was crashed into a crowd of people at the Magdeburg Christmas market is seen following the attack in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday early morning, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
People mourn in front of St. John's Church for the victims of Friday's attack at the Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (Matthias Bein/dpa via AP)
Police tape cordons-off a Christmas Market, where a car drove into a crowd on Friday evening, in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
A police officer stands guard at at a cordoned-off area near a Christmas Market, where a car drove into a crowd on Friday evening, in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Police officers patrol a cordoned-off area at a Christmas Market, where a car drove into a crowd on Friday evening, in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Security guards stand in front of a cordoned-off Christmas Market after a car crashed into a crowd of people, in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Emergency services work in a cordoned-off area near a Christmas Market, after a car drove into a crowd in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Emergency services work in a cordoned-off area near a Christmas Market, after a car drove into a crowd in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Emergency services work in a cordoned-off area near a Christmas Market, after a car drove into a crowd in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Reiner Haseloff, Minister President of Saxony-Anhalt, center, is flanked by Tamara Zieschang, Minister of the Interior and Sport of Saxony-Anhalt, left, and Simone Borris, Mayor of the City of Magdeburg, at a press conference after a car plowed into a busy outdoor Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (Hendrik Schmidt/dpa via AP)
Emergency services work in a cordoned-off area near a Christmas Market, after a car drove into a crowd in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Emergency services work in a cordoned-off area near a Christmas Market, after a car drove into a crowd in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Emergency services work in a cordoned-off area near a Christmas Market, after a car drove into a crowd in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
A police officer guards at a blocked road near a Christmas Market, after an incident in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Emergency services attend an incident at the Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday Dec. 20, 2024. (Dörthe Hein/dpa via AP)
Emergency services attend an incident at the Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday Dec. 20, 2024. (Heiko Rebsch/dpa via AP)
Emergency services attend an incident at the Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday Dec. 20, 2024. (Heiko Rebsch/dpa via AP)
A police officer guards at a cordoned-off area near a Christmas Market after an incident in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
In this screen grab image from video, special police forces attend an incident at the Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday Dec. 20, 2024. (Thomas Schulz/dpa via AP)
Reiner Haseloff (M, CDU), Minister President of Saxony-Anhalt, makes a statement after an incident at the Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday Dec. 20, 2024. (Heiko Rebsch/dpa via AP)
A police officer speaks with a man at a cordoned-off area near a Christmas Market after an incident in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
A policeman is seen at the Christmas market where an incident happened in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday Dec. 20, 2024. (Heiko Rebsch/dpa via AP)
A firefighter walks through a cordoned-off area near a Christmas Market, after a car drove into a crowd in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Emergency services work in a cordoned-off area near a Christmas Market, after an incident in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
A view of the cordoned-off Christmas market after an incident in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday Dec. 20, 2024. (Heiko Rebsch/dpa via AP)
A police officer guards at a blocked road near a Christmas market after an incident in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
The car that was crashed into a crowd of people at the Magdeburg Christmas market is seen following the attack in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday early morning, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Security guards stand in front of a cordoned-off Christmas Market after a car crashed into a crowd of people, in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday early morning, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Security guards stand in front of a cordoned-off Christmas Market after a car crashed into a crowd of people, in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday early morning, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
The car that was crashed into a crowd of people at the Magdeburg Christmas market is seen following the attack in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday early morning, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Forensics work on a damaged car sitting with its doors open after a driver plowed into a busy Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, early Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (Hendrik Schmidt/dpa via AP)
