Every World Cup has a stand-out meme. And it looks like we’ve already found this year’s, with the Internet losing its marbles over a video of a Qatar fan adjusting his gutra.
We’ve already had a couple of prominent British football journalists remarking on how good-looking the Iranian national team is, and suggesting their back up goalkeeper “could be a model,” but now the Internet is realising just how sexy it is possible to look in a gutra, too.
WATCH: ‘Slay Queen’ of Qatar adjusts his gutra during Qatar vs. Ecuador World Cup match
A video posted to TikTok by @jv_luneta from the World Cup’s opening match between Qatar and Ecuador has helped us come to this realisation. The video shows a Qatar fan gesticulating, presumably incensed by a refereeing decision or some other slight.
As part of the movement, he holds his gutra above and to the side of his head, to let his frustrated facial expression be known. Finally, he readjusts his head wear, gently throwing his gutra back over his head, as if he were a runway model adjusting their long hair. He then looks at the camera and nods, as some TikTok users have called it, “guiltily.”
The video was posted alongside the sort of music you might hear in a nightclub. The clip has gone viral, amassing 22.1 million views at the time of writing. Comments beneath the clip include: “This guy became a world cup meme,” “that’s a hair flip for me” and “Queen of qatar.”
Others wrote things like: “Man looked quilty right after,” “yall gonna get lil dude in trouble” and “he’s so iconic.”
Not everyone jumped on the hype train though. One commenter wrote: “He did nothing at all, he adjusted the shemagh over his head, and this is the official dress in the Arabian Gulf.” Another said: “We do this movement all over the Gulf.”
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