Fueled by its success and prestige, Liverpool FC are known to be a football powerhouse. Wildly popular across the globe, adoration for the Reds seems to have increased particularly in the United States as of late.
Their PR in the States has improved after they were taken over by the Fenway Sports Group, and of course, it further increased when superstars such as LeBron James became associated with the club. All this resulted in an influx of Americans joining the Reds’ ranks, and while more fans are always welcome, a few undesirables started to creep in.
One such figure is YouTuber/Boxer Jake Paul, the self-dubbed ‘Problem Child’ has a habit of landing in controversy, which had earned him some notoriety online. During Liverpool’s UCL run this season, Paul expressed his support for the Reds in a series of tweets and looked to be particularly fond of Mo Salah.
Most fans online weren’t exactly welcoming of his support, so when the 25-year-old’s latest tweet presented an opportunity for some trolling, they made sure to make the most of it.
His latest tweet came right before the UCL final, it included a clip of Paul showing off his footy skills and displaying his support for the Reds.
As seen in the clip, he starts off by alluding to the UCL final as a ‘Championship game’, before dedicating his forthcoming strike to Salah.
What follows is a display of some truly amateurish technique as Paul manages to botch the runup by dragging his feet, no evidence of form here. The strike is tame, to say the least, with essentially no power or placement behind it. The goalkeeper evidently had no intentions of making an effort, and simply let it go.
His emphatic celebrations didn’t help his case, as Paul genuinely looked proud of the strike.
Football Twitter is known to be rather merciless at times, so when Paul’s inept attempt presented itself, fans had a field day.
‘If Crypto was a football player’, one user wrote, while another chimed in, ‘stiffest shot I’ve ever seen in my life’.
Needless to say, his technique came under the spotlight as one user exclaimed, ‘That’s how the emos in school used to strike a ball in PE’, while another commented, ‘The last time I saw someone kick a ball like that was Dianna Ross is the opening ceremony of the 1994 World Cup’.
Another quipped, ‘This is exactly what it looks like when I kick a ball with my wrong foot’.
People chipped in with their concern for the future of football in the USA, ‘So many Americans are so Athletic but just have no footballing technique at all, I genuinely fear them as a nation once they start taking football seriously’.
British YouTuber Chris Dixon couldn’t resist a dig himself as he wrote – “Tell me you’ve kicked a ball 4 times in your life without telling me you’ve kicked a ball 4 times in your life”.
