Conor Gallagher has finally completed his highly-publicized transfer to Atletico Madrid after being discarded as excess baggage at Chelsea. The Blues made their youth academy graduate train alone on his own before being finally able to finalize his move to Spain.
The deal was on the verge of breaking down after Chelsea pulled out of the race to sign Atletico Madrid forward Samu Omorodion. But the Blues’ ability to sign Joao Felix allowed the transfer concerning the Englishman to also take place. Gallagher was unveiled as a new Atletico player in a very unique way by their social media team.
They simply announced Gallagher’s signing by posting a hand-drawn picture of a pitbull wearing their home kit. This comes after Julian Alvarez’s signing from Manchester City was confirmed with a meme of Spiderman wearing an Atletico kit (an ode to Alvarez’s ‘web-slinger’ celebrations).
But the reason for drawing a parallel between Gallagher and a Pitbull was due to his ‘Galladog’ nickname among Chelsea fans. This name spawned in the 2023-24 season when some of the London’ heavyweights supporters were tired seeing Gallagher run around the pitch not doing anything really ‘game-changing’.
Gallagher is a really hard-working midfielder who loves covering every inch of the blade whenever he plays. He was one of the few Chelsea players to have covered over 400 KM’s over the course of the 2023/24 season, but his energetic and never-give-up attitude earned him some unfortunate mockery from his own fans.
Some Chelsea fans started to take a dig at his energetic nature by tying the ‘Galladog’ name for the new Atletico midfielder. They tried to liken Gallagher to be similar to a dog who when released onto a field just runs around without any purpose or the ability to do anything worthwhile.
Even though he did score seven goals and provide nine assists in 50 appearances for the Blues last season, more than the likes of Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo, Gallagher still couldn’t get rid of this nickname. The 24-year-old seemingly became an easy target for the Chelsea supporters last season, with each and every one of his mistakes being brought under scrutiny.
The ‘Galladog’ nickname actually stuck and started spreading like wildfire among the Chelsea fan base. The nickname actually even got a slight reference in the England squad advertisement released by Adidas before Euro 2024, where a dog can be seen barking right after Gallagher’s national jersey is displayed.
While most Chelsea fans derived this name to belittle Gallagher by comparing him to a useless dog, Atletico definitely didn’t have the same intentions. They seem to have tweaked his nickname slightly to ‘GallaDawg’ – a reference to the meme that the Englishman has that ‘dawg’ in him.
It basically indicates that Gallagher is a fierce warrior who can fight until the very end like loyal dogs do to protect something they cherish.
The Spanish side also gave the Englishman, as well as the other new signings, a grand presentation in front of the Wanda Metropolitano faithful soon after his signing to get him familiarized with his new home.
But it seems like the ‘Galladog’ nickname will now be tweaked to ‘Galladawg’ and Atletico Madrid’s social media team will probably have a lot of fun using this new tag to boast about his impressive performances for the club.