Footballers dishing it out on social media is nothing new. In the age of memes and trolling opponents, today’s players are not far behind when using their huge social media following to their advantage to get a point across.
As New Year’s messages made its rounds on social media, Germany international and Real Madrid midfielder Toni Kroos took a sly dig at Brazil with a picture update. The image had two words – Feliz 2017 – which translates to ‘Happy 2017’.
The only problem was, it did not actually say 2017. The ‘1’ and ‘7’ were replaced by the flags of Brazil and Germany – a clear message to remind the Brazilians of the hammering they received at the hand of the 2014 World Cup champions in Belo Horizonte. Germany had defeated the hosts 7-1 on their way to their fourth World Cup title.
Obviously, Brazilians were not impressed. Shock soon turned to anger and a tweet from Brazil left-back Marcelo was interpreted as a message to his Real Madrid teammate. His tweet read: “Happy new year to all. Good health and RESPECT others always.”
However, not to be outdone, another former Real Madrid man had the last laugh. Ronaldo Nazario (aka El Fenomeno – The Phenomenon) soon posted an update on Facebook himself and gave it right back to the German, even tagging him in the post.
His image said the same thing – Feliz 2017. But in his post, it was the ‘2’ and ‘0’ that were replaced with the Brazil and Germany flags – a clear reminder of Brazil’s 2-0 win over Germany in the 2002 World Cup. Ronaldo had scored both goals in the final.
Ronaldo 1-0 Kroos.
