Known for his hot-headed personality and crazy antics displayed on his YouTube streams, Darren Watkins Jr or Speed has kept the gaming community entertained since he began streaming in 2016.
But his popularity amongst football fans rose after he pledged himself to be a fan of Cristiano Ronaldo (or ‘Crista Ronaldo’ as he puts it) on air back in 2021 following the player’s return to Manchester United.
Since then, Speed has often sported jerseys of United and the Portuguese national team’s kit in a bid to show his love for the 37-year-old star.
But recently, it appears there have been moments where the American has momentarily forgotten about his allegiance to the United forward and has fanboyed over Ronaldo’s arch nemesis, Leo Messi.
In June, during one of his regular streams, Speed was spotted watching a video of what he thought to be Ronaldo taking a freekick. While he appreciated the attempt after the ball went in, the YouTuber realised that it was actually a clip of Messi instead and proceeded to slander the Argentine’s poor season for PSG last year in the stream.
Last month a similar situation occurred once again on air after the influencer scored a goal with Messi thinking it was Ronaldo on his FIFA stream. Although he celebrated the goal by pounding his chest at first, upon realising his mistake Speed appeared speechless and went on to even pray for forgiveness after committing the apparent sin.
Now, it looks like yet another episode has arrived featuring the self-proclaimed CR7 fan unintentionally showing his love for Messi. As he was watching Messi’s acrobatic goal for PSG that went viral earlier this week, Speed for the first time seemed to be consciously appreciating the genius of the little magician.
After the Argentine shook the world with his phenomenal effort against Clermont Foot during PSG’s opening week fixture, it was only natural that the footage of the goal made its way to Speed as well.
In his reaction to the goal, it was very clear that the American influencer knew this was Messi right from the get-go, unlike in the previous cases. Despite this, it looked like Speed had finally switched allegiances after he was seen smiling and thoroughly enjoying Messi’s goal in this stream.
While his initial reaction perhaps convinced football fans that he had become a Messi supporter now, the American remained faithful to CR7 in the stream as he went on to disrespect and ridicule the goal.
After Messi scored what appeared to be a bicycle kick, comparisons immediately began on social media that whether the effort was better than Ronaldo’s sensational overhead kick against Juventus from the 2017-18 campaign. As Speed appears almost disgusted by Messi’s goal in the second part of his reaction, perhaps this comparison was also in the mind of the Ronaldo fan.
As it looks like there is no escape from Messi for the CR7 follower, it remains to be seen if Speed will be able to continue being a hardcore fan of the Portuguese international. But as it stands, fans can expect to see the streamer continue chanting “Siuuu” and sporting United/Portugal kits during his streams.