Barcelona have been mocked for one of their social media posts on New Year’s day, as they tried to muscle in on Ilkay Gundogan‘s happiness.
Best year of his life pic.twitter.com/VcOmSIHrj0
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) January 1, 2024
After Gundogan posted on Instagram that it had been the best year of his life, recapping a year in which he won the treble with Manchester City as their captain, including their first Champions League. The German international also had a child with partner Sara, before signing with Barcelona.
Who’s gonna tell them, he’s referring to becoming a father and winning a treble with man city pic.twitter.com/dfIz86RLDA https://t.co/m8ODoY1tC2
— 47 (@TheFodenSZN) January 1, 2024
Many were quick to note that the Barcelona section of his year has been considerably less successful than the City part.
The shamelessness to insinuate he said that purely because he signed for Barça when the man literally captained his side to their first ever treble… https://t.co/AI9sqUdqbq
— Neal 🇦🇺 (@NealGardner_) January 1, 2024
The idea being that Barcelona were trying to take credit for his happiness, even though he has endured a tough start to life at the club. That includes frustration with the suffocating media pressure at the club.
Barcelona are undoubtedly one of the cringiest teams on all of social media. This is so beyond stupid. https://t.co/XLhqi4IMlX
— EiF (@EiFSoccer) January 1, 2024
That said, Gundogan himself did include signing for Barcelona and a photo of himself with Joan Laporta in the original post.
they’re trolling us but gundo literally says in the caption that joining his childhood dream club was a part of what made this year the best https://t.co/yqixLpFV3Y pic.twitter.com/JouXonGZET
— 🤷♀️ (@8dors) January 1, 2024
It generally doesn’t take much to attract derision online, and especially on Twitter, where the algorhythm is deliberately designed to reward anger and conflict. However there is no doubt that it felt like a little bit of a reach.
