The Erik Ten Hag era at Manchester United has officially begun. On a damp Tuesday evening in Bangkok, the Red Devils got the better of their eternal rivals, Liverpool, in some style and swagger. The scoreline which read 4-0 in the favour of United at full time will now echo across the world, signalling new dawn on the shores of Manchester.
Jadon Sancho and Anthony Martial got on the scoresheet and despite Jurgen Klopp putting his A-Team in the second half on the pitch, the Red Devils never lost their composure and ended the game with a comprehensive victory.
But besides the emphatic win that once again gave a false sense of hope to their fan base, there was something that didn’t look right. No, we are not talking about the performances. It’s the reward for that performance – The Bangkok Century Cup trophy.
Usually, the trophies handed out are silver and glittering that glow when the flashlights from the cameras hit, but the trophy handed out to United for their sumptuous win was completely unorthodox.
The base of the trophy was a computer’s CPU that seemed to have two exhaust fans shining in red to keep it from heating up, and the trophy’s designer had erected a replica of the Rajamangala Stadium. This is not it. In the centre of the stadium’s model, the match trophy was fixed, which looked like a light version of the FIFA World Cup.
This trophy was designed by Suchao Prowphong, who claims to be a farmer in Thailand with a keen interest in the internet and changing computer parts, turning them into pieces of art. In 2016, Suchao won the inaugural Thermaltake Modding Fighting Championship, winning $3,000 in the process. So the trophy comes from someone looking to spice and mix things up with different parts of the computers.
The weight of the trophy had to be carried off by two guys. So when it was given to the winning United team, Bruno Fernandes assisted Ten Hag to keep the trophy afloat and the new manager could do nothing but put on a nervous smile that was captured by the cameras.
Such was the pull of this trophy’s design, that some United fans completely forgot about this team’s victory and trolled the design of it.
A delusional supporter of the club compared it to the Finalissima trophy and mentioned that if weightage can be given to it as a major trophy, then the Bangkok Cup should also be considered in the same league. Lionel Messi wouldn’t be happy to hear this.
A user stated that it looked like a Personal Computer (PC) with FIFA 22 pre-installed for players to get their hands dirty while someone wanted to know about the specifics (RAM and Graphic Card) on this trophy that looked like a CPU.
There were also shout-outs from the Crypto bros who wanted to know that does the PC has enough power to mine bitcoins.
You can call it whatever or see it however you like, but one thing is certain; this is the first of the many trophies of the Ten Hag era at Old Trafford.