Tuesday’s Hot Clicks: Argentine Soccer Fan Celebrates Championship With Grandfather’s Skull

Soccer fans are on another level.
TNT Sports LA

Soccer fans are on another level

College football fans will try to protest but there is certainly not a group of fans more hardcore than world soccer fans. Argentina is just one place where supporters can go overboard at times, like when a continental championship game had to be postponed after fans attacked a rival team’s bus last year. Argentine side Racing Club captured the league championship this weekend and while there was thankfully no violence, the celebrations were a little crazy. This guy brought along the skull of his grandfather. 

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The man’s name is Gabriel Aranda and his grandfather’s name was Valentín. Aranda said in an interview with TNT Sports that the skull is a good luck charm, which he takes out of its tomb for every Racing game. 

“My grandad will be so proud for doing this,” Aranda added.

The weird thing is, while you could maybe understand a Cubs fan doing something similar after a title drought of more than 100 years, Racing last won the championship in... 2014. 

Was he mad for real?

ESPN’s Pablo Torre and Bomani Jones pranked their colleague, First Take host Will Cain, by pretending to have him guest host their show High Noon. Cain, ESPN’s token right-leaning pundit, appeared ticked off by the prank and Jones sold it well with the line “The next time they have you on will be the day I quit.” But it looks to me like he was acting, and Cain’s tweet afterward says as much.

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Email dan.gartland@simail.com with any feedback or follow me on Twitter for approximately one half-decent baseball joke per week. Bookmark this page to see previous editions of Hot Clicks and find the newest edition every day. By popular request I’ve made a Spotify playlist of the music featured here. Visit our Extra Mustard page throughout each day for more offbeat sports stories.


Published
Dan Gartland
DAN GARTLAND

Dan Gartland is the writer and editor of Sports Illustrated’s flagship daily newsletter, SI:AM, covering everything an educated sports fan needs to know. He joined the SI staff in 2014, having previously been published on Deadspin and Slate. Gartland, a graduate of Fordham University, is a former Sports Jeopardy! champion (Season 1, Episode 5).