Maradona's World Cup Celebrations

About

Maradona's World Cup Celebrations refer to jokes made about former Argentinian footballer and manager wildly celebrating Argentina's play during their its final game in the group stage of the 2018 World Cup, which they won to advance to the knockout rounds of the World Cup.

Origin

On June 26th, 2018, Argentina played Nigeria in the final game of the group stage of the 2018 World Cup. Argentina needed a victory and a victory by Croatia over Iceland to advance in the tournament. During the game, cameras often cut to Diego Maradona who was raucously reacting to the play on the field. One of the most notable moments came after Argentina scored a late goal to put them up 2-1 and essentially clinch their spot in the knockout rounds. Cameras cut to Maradona who was seen giving two middle fingers to another person in the stands (shown below, left). Another notable moment came when cameras caught Maradona with his arms folded over his chest, appearing to be praying towards the heavens (shown below, right).

Spread

After the game, Twitter users joked about Maradona's wild celebrations. There, the crossed-arms pose was photoshopped into many images. Some popular examples include a post by user @joaquinsalgado_ that showed Maradona on a roller coaster, gaining over 80 retweets and 180 likes (shown below, left). The Twitter account for Sports Illustrated joked about the middle fingers by facetiously saying Maradona was indicating his team scored two goals (shown below, right).

Maradona's wild celebrations led many to speculate that he was intoxicated. Sports pundit Pablo Torre joked he would like to take a "Magic School Bus ride through Maradona's bloodstream," gaining over 770 retweets and 3,200 likes (shown below, left). Account @alt_uscis showed a side-by-side comparison of Maradona at different points in the match, suggesting he was abusing cocaine (shown below, right).

After the game, Maradona was treated by medics, and was described as okay.^[1]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References