Atletico Madrid’s pre-season neared its end in Seoul on Sunday with a 3-1 loss to Manchester City. The Rojiblancos will next travel to the Stade Velodrome for one final friendly against Marseille before returning to Spain to kick off their new season.
Atleti took the lead with Jorge Dominguez against City, but were pegged back by an Omar Marmoush brace and Rayan Ait-Nouri goal in the second half. The encounter also marked a club debut for local hero Lee Kang-in after he recently joined from Paris Saint-Germain.
Over 50,000 fans watched all the action play out at the Seoul World Cup Stadium. To make their experience even better, Atletico had prepared a special surprise just before the game began.
The club invited K-pop icon Choi San from the hugely popular group ATEEZ for an honorary kickoff. The 27-year-old walked out in an Atletico jersey with the ball in hand, waving to the roaring crowd.
The speakers in the stadium blared out his hit song BAD. The stadium announcer’s introduction attracted a huge cheer from fans as San nodded to the beat and soaked in the atmosphere.
San then added his own flavour to proceedings with a quick dance routine in the centre of the field. It involved an unnecessarily large number of chest pumps and sultry movements that has brought San massive popularity.
He performed for a few seconds facing the camera following him before making a heart sign with his hands to sign off.
oh san they’re eating you alive on footballtwt pic.twitter.com/Scf0BlLTqE
— heather 🇵🇸 (@sinnergoal) August 10, 2026
The only thing left to do now for the popstar was kick the ball. Little did the fans know the worst was yet to come.
San ran at the ball with all his might before taking a wild swipe with his flailing legs. Unsurprisingly, the ball went nowhere near the goal.
However, the funnier part was the sheer lack of finesse in San’s antics. The Korean has had little to do with football in his life, made amply clear with the way he jumped while kicking the ball.
— ؘ (@hyunjinphilia) August 11, 2026
Even the players surrounding him could not help but express their awe at how absurd the whole thing was. Atletico’s Ademola Lookman looked traumatized while City’s Matteo Kovacic contorted his face as if he had just seen a ghost.
Phil Foden spared no mercy as he burst out laughing in the background. Even San’s compatriot Kang-in could not suppress his giggles while the antics played out.
Unfortunately for the organisers, the marketing stunt did not go down well with football twitter either.
While K-pop fans were thrilled, praising San’s energy and his shoutout to Lee Kang-in, and flooded social media with cheers, plenty of football fans pushed back, saying the pre-match show pulled focus away from the game itself, with some calling San’s appearance out of place or even embarrassing at a match between two major clubs. Some critics went further, saying San had lost his “aura” the moment he stepped outside the K-pop bubble without the usual backup dancers and stage setup.
No he didn’t 💀 pic.twitter.com/LL4yq5UqPb
— AUDA CITY (@pegasus9060) August 11, 2026
The whole routine seemed to remind fans of the heavily criticized half-time show at the recent 2026 FIFA World Cup final masterminded by Gianni Infantino.
The dance perceived as cringe by football fans was part of a viral dance challenge originating from Ateez’s hit album titular song ‘BAD’. The chest pops were right at the heart of the challenge, no pun intended, and garnered participation from a wide number of celebrities too.
It has context which Ateez fans and a lot of Koreans would understand but unfortunately the football audience dont know it so it landed terribly 😭 He went like ultra viral in Korea for this specific dance move and they obviously wanted him to do the viral thing.
— YEOSANG DOBERMAN⁸ (@honeybunhwa) August 11, 2026
Albeit highly unlikely, Atletico would hope fans forget quickly about the whole incident. Nevertheless, a La Liga season opener against Malaga at home on August 19 is bound to help their cause.
