After Arsenal’s 2-0 loss to Bournemouth, wherein William Saliba saw red, his partner in defense, Gabriel Magalhães, made an interesting life choice—not by improving his defense, but by promoting GDOG, a cryptocurrency featuring a dog. Yeah, because after a tough day at work, nothing says I’m handling this well, like jumping on Instagram and marketing a meme coin. It’s the footballer equivalent of burning dinner and then tweeting a promo code for fire extinguishers.
Now, promoting crypto isn’t uncommon in football these days. It’s like players are trying to diversify their portfolio as much as they try to switch the play. But Gabriel’s timing? Rough. Arsenal fans, already sobbing into their scarves after a surprise loss, didn’t exactly appreciate their center-back hawking a meme coin that feels about as stable as Arsenal’s defense on the day.
The coin itself? GDOG—think of it as Dogecoin’s less successful cousin who still lives at home and can’t stop talking about how it’s about to blow up. And why are footballers like Gabriel, Andreas Pereira, and Sergio Busquets drawn to it? Maybe it’s the same reason we all had an embarrassing hairstyle phase: everyone else is doing it. But while meme coins can skyrocket one day and crash harder than a FIFA server on launch day, fans seem to prefer if their players were as good at defending as they are at shilling.
In Gabriel’s case, next time the backline collapses, maybe just, I don’t know… log off?
Fans Reaction on Gabriel’s Instagram Story
Arsenal had their worst display this season last Saturday. Arteta’s much-debated ‘defending and playing on the counter’ approach had worked for him until now. But when he met Bournemouth last weekend, things that were working for him previously started to fade away. For starters, his ever-reliable Rolls Royce in defense, Saliba, lost his cool and was denied a goal-scoring opportunity, which saw him sent off. Their defense eventually capitulated, and their offense struggled to create any clear goal-scoring chances as the match went into its closing stages.
When all of that happened, one would think Gabriel could at least wait a day or two to not lose his. But the Brazilian uploaded a promotional banner for GDOG over his Instagram story, and it has gained a lot of traction and reaction from fans over social media.
Most of the fans were obviously not satisfied with the Arsenal man getting involved in such promotions, making their already bad weekend bleaker. But some were keen to point out the fact that club officials may soon advise him to take it down, as Arsenal FC as an institution also has association with Socios, which is another blockchain-integrated sports and entertainment crypto currency. This might result in conflict of interest between the Brazilian and his club
Others have funnily expressed that Coffee Zilla, the famous internet journalist known for exposing a lot of influencers and celebs for these scams, might soon be investing them, and let’s just say that would be the last thing an Arsenal fan would want right now, in their lives. Some have speculated the endorsement money must be huge for the star to be involved in this, while others have argued why would footballers even need more money when they already earn so much?
Some have even suggested that if the coin is not officially FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) registered, then it cannot be marketed to UK audiences. This could put the Arsenal star in trouble; some fans have implied that probability as well.
What is GDOG? The Crypto That’s Got More Tricks Than Your Average Pet!
GDOG is, of course, a type of crypto currency inspired by a bit famous Dog of Miami who’s just having a good time. Yes, that’s what their official webpage tells us. Further, GDOG is created for the spirit of sports and entertainment, which explains why they have tied up and made collaborations with Ex and current footballers like – David Luiz, Sergio Busquets, Andreas Pereira and now with Arsenal’s Gabriel.
In their official website, they have further mentioned that their purpose of designing this crypto was also for fun and community engagement. Crypto currencies are part of various blockchain technologies, and this memecoin is part of the ‘Solana’ blockchain. They have also mentioned that currently it serves as a purpose for having fun and community interaction, but they have future plans to gamify this and also dive into the potential partnerships and community rewards.
This isn’t all of it. Dogecoin’s long lost sister, GDOG, has also promised its fans of integrating GDOG with EA Sport’s FC25 or enhanced versions, either with a mod or even launching its own dog footballing game. Users can use GDOG to even place bets and earn prizes and entries to various sports events. So, they’ve promised an ecosystem of sports and entertainment for its users.
On top of that they also donate 2.5% of their token buyout to kids and charities associated with them for improving their overall health. They have also stated that they do charity in the field of animal sheltering as well.
So, is GDOG really an investing goldmine, or is it just too good to be true? And why, more often than not, these crypto currencies, which are endorsed by celebrities, end up being scams? Let’s know a bit more about that.
Crypto Scams: The Only Thing Fans Hate More Than VAR!
After Logan Paul’s whole crypto-scam fiasco, much of its credibility in the eyes of the general public has evaporated, quicker than Arsenal’s hope of winning the Premier League this season.
Remember Kim Kardashian and her endorsement of crypto, Ethereum Max? The famous Hollywood celebrity was also recently involved in the news for endorsing the same and taking 250000 USD in return as a fee. This too, like countless other crypto currencies, received backlash from the public.
But why do these currencies fail, in spite of their initial hype facilitated by these celebrities? Let’s find out more about that. Well, for starters, the market is mostly unregulated. Lack of clear frameworks and strict regulations for working is a recipe for scams and fraudulent activities in that sector. When a market is unregulated, what results as a consequence of that is people or organizations being less transparent with their motive or underlying technology in the blockchain and luring potential consumers for their monetary gain.
It is also very elastic to public opinion; thus, companies prefer to work with influencers, athletes, and celebs as they are capable of building hype about any product or service using their audience and fame. As a result, it also goes down in price because of its reactive state to publicity when there is negative news around it. So, when Logan Paul sold off all of his cryptos for his brand right after endorsing it, it was seen as negative news considering someone who was so closely and publicly affiliated sold all his holdings so soon after endorsing it. Thus, it’s price and future potential went down and that resulted in all of the people losing their money.
One adds that to the security risks involved, wherein all of this tech can easily be hacked, including transactions and wallets, let’s just say life’s not stable as an investor in this realm, and thus most of these companies and currencies fail and are often seen in a negative light by football fans and the general audience.
Overall, in the grand scheme of things, Gabriel might be solid in defense for Arsenal, but when it comes to defending his GDOG promotion, even he can’t tackle the backlash. Sure, the timing was as off as Arsenal’s defense against Bournemouth that day, but let’s not forget—usually, Arsenal’s backline is tighter than a crypto investor holding onto their last Bitcoin.
While Gabriel might have missed the mark on this one, Arsenal fans will probably forgive him the next time he shuts down a top striker. But maybe, just maybe, it’s best to keep those crypto plugs off the Insta stories and leave the “dog” coins to the Shiba Inus of the world. Because let’s face it—some investments are riskier than playing a high line with 10 men on the pitch.
