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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Sport
Naaman Zhou

The World Cup in memes – from Mexican grandma to Fern Hawkins

Brazil’s goalkeeper Alisson, Senegal coach Aliou Cissé, Diego Maradona and Harry Maguire’s partner Fern Hawkins
Brazil’s goalkeeper Alisson, Senegal coach Aliou Cissé, Diego Maradona and Harry Maguire’s partner Fern Hawkins have brightened our World Cup days. Photograph: Getty Images/ AP / REUTERS

They said we’d be talking about Michy Batshuayi for weeks. When his face unexpectedly met the thermoplastic polyurethane of a Telstar 18, that marriage of Michy and ball seemed to be it. Can’t be topped. Meme of the tournament.

But then Neymar rolled. And Jesse Lingard picked up the phone to his mum.

Memes are by their nature ephemeral, but this World Cup, with its glorious upsets and violent delights, has made them doubly so. We’ve tried to capture the greatest memories of the tournament so far. An honourable mention to It’s Coming Home – a fine meme that, like any crowd-pleasing sitcom character, has already been spun off for its own full article and won’t be appearing here.

The human rights derby

Before we could be washed by the cleansing tide of football into what Daniel Storey called the safe harbour of WorldCupsville – the first match and meme of the competition was a reminder that we live in the real world.

The cursed triptych of Gianni Infantino, Vladimir Putin and Mohammad bin Salman sharing an awkward shrug in Russia’s 5-0 demolition of Saudi Arabia launched a thousand memes.

Weeks later, Croatian president Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović gave us a much more joyous, palate-cleansing celebration opposite Dmitry Medvedev as Russia narrowly crashed out of the quarters.

Throw-in masterclass

Iran’s Milad Mohammadi added a frankly unnecessary degree of difficulty to the relatively straightforward procedure of getting the ball back into play.


Mexican grandma

The shock of the first round of matches, which in turn led to the shock of the group stage, was surely Mexico’s swashbuckling victory over Germany. On Twitter, fans attributed the win to one very special woman.

Enraged Australian viewers

Australian memories of Argentina v Iceland and Serbia v Costa Rica may be a bit hazier than most, thanks to a hilarious implosion from local telco Optus, who snaffled up the exclusive rights to a swath of games but then failed to stream them properly.

The recriminations spawned incredible memes as an aggrieved nation took turns dunking on the beleaguered network.

Cissé’s celebrations

Aliou Cissé and his Senegal team were many neutrals’ favourite, not least for this masterclass against Poland.

Alisson bursts our bubble

You have to love a meme that can do so much heavy lifting. Brazil’s exit? Germany’s? Spain’s? It all works. Alisson’s stamp, from Brazil’s opening draw with Switzerland, could be memed to apply to almost everything.

Label the ball as Germany and Alisson as Son Heung-Min. Label one England and the other, well, England. The possibilities were endless.

Simon Schama chips in

Not strictly a meme, but the owning of top brainy historian Simon Schama deserves its own special place in the World Cup memory bank.


Rolling Neymar

All good narratives need a through-line, so God bless you Neymar Jr. The Brazilian’s antics were one of the truly transcendent memes of this tournament, stretching from the group stage into the knockouts. It began with a dive against Costa Rica, then really took off as he rolled in mock agony in the match against Mexico.

#NeymarChallenge became a meme in every continent.

Coach Tite’s celebrations also became memes by association. One was beautifully simple: he fell over. The other got the rather abstract Shooting Stars treatment.

“Over the bar”

The iconic chant was already de rigueur among Nigerian fans, but when Iceland’s Gylfi Sigurdsson skied his penalty into the stands, the celebratory videos of Super Eagles fans brought a catchy new chant to the world.

Diego Armando Maradona

Another constant throughout the group stages and beyond, Maradona’s antics in the stands – for better or worse – became an instant meme.

He sniffed during Argentina v Iceland:

And went off during Argentina v Nigeria, cutting short his tactile celebrations only to give the finger to opposing fans:

“Corea, hermano, ya eres mexicano”

A fantastic cross-continental meme emerged in the aftermath of Korea’s 2-0 defeat of Germany. With the Koreans’ victory saving Mexico from elimination, a beautiful friendship bloomed between the two countries.

From random fans in the street:

To the Korean consul-general absolutely partying down:

Michy Batshuayi

Belgium 1-0 England. A goalpost 1-0 Batshuayi.

The Belgian striker’s face-smashing celebration was instantly earmarked as a meme of the tournament – made all the sweeter by the fact that he’d missed three or four chances in the previous game against Tunisia.

When I was 19

Kylian Mbappé’s double against Argentina made him the first teenager since Pelé to net two goals in the knockout stages. What have you ever done?

Jordan Pickford’s old tweets

On the topic of youth, England’s penalty hero against Colombia and man of the match against Sweden, Jordan Pickford, got the meme treatment after grateful fans discovered his old tweets – back when he was a non-league novice at clubs like Alfreton just waiting for his Nandos.

Fern burns

England’s Harry Maguire stepped into the meme limelight with his tremendous forehead’s opening goal against Sweden. This picture of Maguire and his partner Fern Hawkins – which, agonisingly, resembles Distracted Boyfriend but has not yet been combined with it – took off after Kyle Walker’s expert roast.

Maguire and Hawkins have put their own spin on it, so clearly approve.

And finally...

The prediction that wasn’t that much further off the mark than most of the others.

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