Manchester United midfielder Manuel Ugarte is characterized as being a no-nonsense central defensive midfielder. The 23-year-old, who was bought in the summer for 42 million pounds, goes into his tackles hard and firm; he likes battling it out against his opponent attackers and uses his burly physique to win duels and dispossess opponents. And with the ball, he prefers going direct and is quite deft at launching accurate long balls.
But the Uruguayan midfielder, who has 28 caps for the national team, also has a rather peculiar and questionable trait: his overindulgence with showing people the middle finger in public places. Time and again, he has been seen making the ‘giving the finger’ gesture rather nonchalantly. The gesture has a general negative connotation across the majority of the countries of the world, and it is not a friendly signal. So, for him to do it while taking selfies with the fans or acknowledging the photographers is perplexing.
While we still don’t have a clue why he does it, the fans have been talking about it. Captured on camera doing it twice in a space of 3 days, first before the EFL Cup quarter-final match against Tottenham Hotspur, and then, before the Premier League match against Bournemouth, different fans have given their opinion on it. One of them said, “Someone’s definitely told him the wrong meaning🤣🤣🤣”
Another fan tweeted, “Does he think this means something else, or does he know?”
The History of the Origin of the Gesture
Known by different names like ‘giving the finger’, ‘flipping the bird’ or the crude and indecent phrases like ‘shove it up your ass’ , ‘fuck you’ or ‘go fuck yourself ‘, the gesture has had its origin around the 4th century BC, when a Greek philosopher, Diogenes, did the finger gesture to describe a fellow statesman.
The source of the meaning is from the fact that when doing the gesture, the middle finger would look like a penis and the other curled fingers on either side would denote the testicles. In ancient times, the Greeks and later, the Romans used to make the finger gesture as a degrading sexual insult to establish dominance and show severe disrespect and contempt. The Romans even called the middle finger ‘digitus impudicus’, meaning ‘indecent finger’.
However, down the years, the gesture’s undertone has gone through a change in interpretation and expression. Although still retaining the essence of contempt, disregard, disgust and anger, the sexual reading of it has somewhat eroded in the present day. In fact, nowadays, we see artists, sportspersons, politicians “show the finger” to express contempt against some action or person. Sometimes, the gesture is even seen to be done in a lighter tone to banter or troll. Still, mostly it is an offensive gesture done in a serious frame of mind. In fact, before Manuel Ugarte, Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez, while playing for Liverpool, had shown the ‘finger’ in a match against Fulham.
What views do the Latin Americans hold about the Middle finger Gesture
The gesture is not condoned in the majority of the countries in South America, including Uruguay. In most of the countries, it is a sign of contempt and scorn, an expression of anger and disobedience. In some countries, there are even laws that make it a punishable offence.
Ugarte has been caught on camera doing the gesture way too many times for it to be an accident or a mistaken faux pas. A fan said, “That’s his pose if you see all his pics he is giving the middle fingers even in national camp.”
Ugarte has made 20 appearances so far in a Man United shirt. The Premier League still hasn’t made any public statement regarding Ugarte’s ‘middle finger’ gesture. We will have to see when the Uruguayan drops the finger bomb next.
