Being a footballer is quite a sweet deal. You get loads of money, you get to fly around the world, you get to kick a football all day and if you do something truly brilliant you get lauded for it on the Internet.
Or you get turned into a meme, like good old Fabio Cannavaro and Phil Jones, two footballers who in our eyes, pretty much won the internet over the weekend.
But which entertained you more? Mull over the cases before taking the poll at the bottom.
Tale Of The Tape
Who: Fabio Cannarvaro
Considered one of the greatest defenders of all time, Cannarvaro is currently the head coach of Chinese club Guangzhou Evergrande. An Italian footballing legend who had silverware grabbing spells at Parma and Real Madrid, not to mention being named FIFA World Player Of The Year in 2006 and bagging himself the Ballon d’Or award.
The incident:
As Stevie Gerrard played his final game at Anfield over the weekend, an obviously emotional Cannavaro decided to recognise said event by taking to Facebook and writing a lovely little tribute to the Liverpool skipper. Complete with hashtags like: #Icons #Topplayers and #History.
It was a touching moment, one great player complimenting another great player and former rival for the world to see. Except apparently Cannarvaro doesn’t actually know who Gerrard is and decided to post a picture of himself facing off against Frank Lampard instead.
We’d like to say it was an in-joke but considering the post was swiftly deleted we’ll say it was an epic fail.
Who: Phil Jones
If Premier League campaigns were built on memes and unintentional gurning, Jones would have won his team the title already. But don’t let this fool you – the boy can play too. Once hailed as the new Duncan Edwards by Sir Alex Ferguson, and now an established England defender, the former Blackburn youth product even held his own in midfield against Spain for one international friendly.
The incident:
It was clash of the titans, Manchester United vs Arsenal. Gunners striker Olivier Giroud was headed down route one straight from the goal line and all that could stop him was a stumbling, flailing Jones. It didn't look good. Jones had hit a strange bobble enroute to stopping Giroud, his run going from that of a steely gazelle to Bambi on ice after six pints. It was like watching a Jenga tower fall over in slow motion.
You could see in his eyes that the game was up, and yet somehow, against all odds, Jones managed to style it out with arguably the greatest (and most hilarious defensive header we’ve ever seen.)
“Nice try Giroud.” He probably thought as Twitter exploded.
(Images: Getty, Rex Features)
