Smoking Turkish 36-year-old Boy

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About

Smoking Turkish 36-year-old Boy refers to a seemingly young soccer fan caught on television during a Turkish soccer match for charity. After a number of Twitter users commented on a the matter, they found out that the boy was actually a 36-year-old man.

Origin

On September 8th, 2019, Turkish soccer clubs Bursaspor and Fenerbahce arranged a game in which the proceeds would go to charity.^[5] During the game, many tuned in noticed a boy smoking a cigarette in the stands and took to Twitter to comment. Thet day, Twitter user @objektifdegilim uploaded a clip of the match to Twitter captioned, "Fenerbahçe and Bursaspor match for children look at the image ahdsahjadshjajhajh" (shown below). The post gained over 47,000 likes and 9,700 retweets in four days.

Spread

On the same day, Yuregini Koy Ortaya^[1]^[2] confirmed on their Instagram account that "'Sigara içen çocuk' diye paylaşsigim arkadaşın 36 yaşında olduğu ortaya çıkdi" or that he turned out to be a 36-year-old and added a picture in which the fan indeed seems a little older (shown below, left). The post gained over 4,600 likes in four days. The fan gained some noteriety with Twitter users posting about him in the days following. On September 12th, Twitter user @Recep68672034^[3] posted another photo of the man (shown below, right). The Metro UK^[4] reported that, "Smoking in public places in Turkey is against the law and carries a fine of 69 Turkish lira (£13). It is yet unclear if authorities will be following up the matter."