Football fans have a funny habit of linking seemingly impossible things with each other.
This is never more evident than when they want to develop chants for players, with pop songs being used as templates to serenade popular players on the pitch.
And this isn’t the only time that pop culture finds its way into the sport.
It features very prominently in what is perhaps the most creative thing clubs do off the pitch.
New player introduction videos after a transfer.
Just look at this one all the way back in 2016 when Vancouver Whitecaps announced their ‘capture’ of two players using the Pokemon Go theme.
Then there was the Weghorst announcement post drawing inspiration from the 90s classic film Jurassic Park.
And of course, it is not just clubs that use popular references to add some humour to the ever-stressful game.
Social media is a gift that keeps giving, with eagle-eyed viewers spotting the most random observations and making a perfect meme for it. I mean, who remembers this classic one when Josh Onomah and Heung-min Son started in the same midfield for Spurs?
The names read “Onomah Son”, or, for the ones that can’t yet see it, “Oh no my son!”, with the image caption referring to the movie Home Alone.
Another funny player-name instance was spotted in a Championship game this Monday.
Cardiff City and QPR played in England’s second-tier league game, which ended 0-0 leaving the two 20th and 7th in the table respectively.
In one picture captured during the game, Mahlon Romeo, Cardiff’s right back and Jimmy Dunne, QPR’s centre back, were standing next to each other.
The jerseys in the photo read “Romeo Dunne”.
To most of us, this would not mean anything. But anyone familiar with the 90s and 00s British rap music would spot something like this Twitter user did.
The caption for the image in the tweet reads “2 multiplied by 10 plus 1”.
If you noticed the jersey numbers read as “23”, then did some quick maths as per the caption, calculated 21, got confused and sat down, you are not alone.
So let us decode this for you.
The caption has nothing to do with the actual calculation or the number on the jerseys. In fact, it is a throwback to a 2001 song called “21 seconds”, released by a UK Garage crew named So Solid Crew.
The lyrics of a part of the song read:
How old am I? 21
I got 21 seconds den my vocals done
2 multiplied by 10 plus 1
Romeo done
And there is that same line: “2 multiplied by 10 plus 1”, followed by the words “Romeo Done”, sung by the rapper known as Romeo Dunn.
Still, having some difficulty figuring out what is actually happening?
Look at those jerseys in that tweet again, and this time read the names and not the numbers. “Romeo Dunne”.
The connection was so out of the blue that Twitter was quick to appreciate and applaud the poster, with the post gathering 2.3M views and 16.7K likes!
It is obvious that not all supporters will get this reference, but one set of fans who should ideally get this is Spurs supporters.
The club used the same song reference to announce defender Christian Romero last year.
“Romero Done”.
And now you know…
