Borussia Dortmund winger Karim Adeyemi had a highly forgettable 2023/24 UEFA Champions League final against Real Madrid. It’s not that he was absolutely horrible.
On the contrary, Adeyemi caused Dani Carvajal a lot of problems with his movement and often sneaked his way into the Los Blancos’ opposition area – getting six touches in their box.
But the 22-year-old forward just couldn’t add that finishing touch to his game. A few moments of hesitation caused him to ruin some golden opportunities to put Dortmund in the lead.
The biggest one happened in the 21st minute when a brilliant Mats Hummels pass allowed the young forward to beat Real Madrid’s defensive line and go through on goal.
He was in a one-on-one situation with Thibaut Courtois and even went around the goalkeeper, but a poor final touch and a moment of hesitation saw his effort thwarted.
Adeyemi would later have another chance in the half, but saw his attempt saved by Courtois. But his inability to put the ball into the back of the net from open range infuriated not only Dortmund, but many neutral fans watching too.
Adeyemi earned a lot of criticism for those misses, but the most embarrassing one was the term created by French fans.
The non-French-speaking fans needed time to grasp exactly what this term meant before realizing that it was actually an insult to Adeyemi after his big miss.
It turns out that this French fan is abusing the German winger for his error and the word ‘HDMI’ is a way of demeaning him.
Now, for a normal person, the word ‘HDMI’ means the High-Definition Multimedia Interface which is required for any TV or monitor to display high-definition picture quality like 1080 or 4k.
But the French fan didn’t want to compare him to a data cable, it’s a case of the word ‘HDMI’ being a shortened one for Adeyemi if one is to consider the way French phonetics work.
Considering how the French speak their language, the letters HDMI could sound something like ‘Hdeyemi’ and this word is quite similar to the name ‘Adeyemi’.
If a French person was to rapidly repeat the word ‘HDMI’ it would soon sound very similar to the Borussia Dortmund forward’s name, which is why this slander name is so clever and hilarious at the same time.
In his defence, Adeyemi was playing his first major European final against Real Madrid and his attempt of going around Courtois to score was smart too, but his shot was blocked by Carvajal.
The 22-year-old will learn from this experience and realize what it takes to succeed in such major finals going forward, but he might be in for some embarrassing slandering the next time he travels to play matches in front of the French football fanatics.