It's fair to say that there's a large vacuum in every football fan's life right now. The 2018 World Cup is over, and there's still an excruciating month before the Premier League is back on the menu.
But to use a hackneyed, pseudo inspirational cliche, we should not cry because it's over, we should smile because it happened, and over the course of the last 30 days or so we have been given a lot of great memories to cherish.
But by the same token, the World Cup has also given us its fair share of eejits, and a lot have been just as entertaining as anything that happened during a game. Here are 13 of the best.
The 13 Biggest Gobshites Of The World Cup
Milad Mohammadi
The dying minutes of the game, your team desperate for a goal. Then you do this:
MOMENT OF THE WORLD CUP: #irn defender Milad Mohammadi's aborted throw in. Give the lad a break! pic.twitter.com/hQPFEzYwPi
— Neal Collins (@nealcol) June 21, 2018
Magnificent.
Michy Batshuayi
The real highlight of what was essentially a dead rubber of a game, Batshuayi managing to upstage a wonderful strike by Adnan Januzaj:
LMAO @mbatshuayi pic.twitter.com/qH0xCEOQpA
— Thomas Beroun (@dzoney2) June 28, 2018
Maroon 5
I hope that Maroon 5 got paid handsomely for this atrocity, because they should be banned from setting foot on Ireland as a result.
Neymar
It was a troubled tournament for PSG star Neymar, with the Brazil star's histrionics overshadowing anything else he did on the pitch
A.D (@AD2554) Tweeted:
Internet's favourite #Neymar #neymarjr #neymarrolling #neymardive #NeymarDramaQueen pic.twitter.com/Tszhzf7lKv https://t.co/PdXfoY9B7L— sam spencer (@samboa589) July 10, 2018
Argentinian TV
Argentinian TV won the accolade for the most needlessly dramatic play of the World Cup, holding a minute's silence in their TV studio following their team's defeat to Croatia.
Leon Osman
Bualadh bos Leon, this cameo makes me wonder if we'll just have robot pundits by Qatar 2022:
Leon Osman just rattled off 14 clichés in 30 seconds. Fair play. pic.twitter.com/ZajZcXofic
— Dougie Wright (@dougie_wright) June 25, 2018
GAA President John Horan
Yesterday's World Cup final took place during the Super 8 tie between Kerry and Galway and prior to the clash GAA President John Horan stressed that that the clash could not be avoided as the association can't 'legislate for these kind of things happening.' The World Cup final was scheduled back in 2015, with the times confirmed in 2017.
Diego Maradona
Maradona was like a symbol for Argentina at this World Cup; entertaining, ageing and liable to do anything at any given time. As hilarious as the former World Cup winner was, by the end of Argentina's run in the competition you got the sense you should be more concerned for the 57-year-old than anything else.
English media after Belgium defeat
Headlines such as 'England lose (but did they really win)', 'Lucky Losers' & 'This Way To The Final' made England's semi-final defeat to Croatia all the more sweet.
Pepe
Noted bollocks Pepe confirmed in his team's win over Morocco that he is still, indeed, a prick.
Landon Donovan
The tournament is here! USA fans, our team may not be in Russia, but our neighbors to the south are. So join me and their proud #sponsor @WellsFargo to cheer on our other team, Mexico @miseleccionmxEN. ¡Vamos México! pic.twitter.com/YIifLGCT0D
— Landon Donovan (@landondonovan) June 16, 2018
Basically USA star Landon Donovan got paid a haype of money by Wells Fargo to support Mexico in the World Cup and then scolded Carlos Bocanegra for having the temerity for criticise him:
You grew up in SoCal and owe much of your soccer skill to playing with Mexicans. Your father is of Mexican descent. Look around our country, are you happy with how we are treating Mexicans? Open your mind, stand for something & remember where you came from.
Dejan Lovren
In fairness Lovren did have a good World Cup... it's just that having a 'good' World Cup does not equate to being one of the best defenders in the world. Also conceding four goals in a World Cup final a couple of days before you claim to be a world class defender is not a good look.
Dejan Lovren to BeIN Sports tonight “people should recognise now that I am one of the best defenders in the world” pic.twitter.com/HP1VJmYYyh
— Matt Critchley (@MattCritchley1) July 11, 2018
England players trying to use nonexistant loophole
On the second day of the World Cup, Spain and Portugal played out a brilliant 3-3 draw, with Ronaldo scoring an amazing last minute free-kick equaliser. In the aftermath, one of the stranger narratives was that José Fonte had remained on the field of play after the free-kick while all of his teammates lost their mind in order to prevent Spain kicking off.
An obscure FIFA rule was quoted for this rule that simply doesn't exist. FIFA's rules for kicking off very clearly point to all opposition players needing to be in their own half of the pitch.
Like a lot of things posted online, this was taken as fact by many, with the above tweet going viral and getting close to two million views and It seems the mythbusting didn't quite reach the England team, who tried a quick kick-off after Croatia's winner in their semi-final:
Hrvati so blizu finala pic.twitter.com/vJMuRSLdYf
— Vlasta Jeseničnik (@VJesenicnik) July 11, 2018
