Antonio Rudiger is a man of many talents, and one of his best ones is trolling players on the pitch.
And after unveiling a peculiar running style back in March 2022 in the Premier League fixture against Newcastle United, Rudiger was back at it again in Qatar during Germany’s 2-1 loss to Japan.
Besides the shocking result, Rudiger’s animated, cartoonish run near the corner flag, is likely to be the talk of the town for a while.
As Germany maintained a 1-0 lead in the 63rd minute of the game, Rudiger, raced for the ball against Japan’s Takuma Asano on his defensive wing.
In the battle for speed, the Real Madrid defender began running like a cartoon character by practically prancing toward the ball with his legs higher up in the air than he would normally care to bring them.
While the defender managed to successfully block Asano’s attempt to reach the ball and swerve it in for a cross, and secure a goal kick for his team, his intent behind the peculiar run is up for speculation.
With some fans believing his movements to be a feigned forward run, and others believing them to simply be Rudiger’s tactical troll in the middle of an intense moment, nobody really knows why Rudiger ran the way he did.
But all said and done, Rudiger is a jovial player, known to josh around on the pitch and enjoys the game. Therefore, it is entirely possible that the CB just got a tad bit too excited.
Unfortunately for him, Japan scored 2 late phenomenal goals, denying Rudiger to prance into the dressing room a victor.