Michael Olise has built a reputation as one of the most deadpan, unbothered personalities in football, and three separate viral moments this year have fans convinced he’s got a specific issue with birds.
During Bayern’s Bundesliga title celebrations, as Jamal Musiala set the cockatoo statue up in front of the Bundesliga champions badge for a group photo, Olise was seen nudging it out of view, hiding it behind the badge just as the picture was being taken.
he’s always hated that cockatoo i’m yellingggg pic.twitter.com/xg36lMd5AD
— j (@mboopolise) August 24, 2026
Then came the German Supercup, played at Signal Iduna Park in Dortmund. Amid the celebrations that followed Bayern’s win, footage shows Olise walking over to where the cockatoo statue was displayed on its podium and taking it down himself, all while keeping the same unreadable, deadpan expression he’s known for, only for teammate Alphonso Davies to step in and quietly put it back moments later.
he’s so😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/zur4QXHUPb
— tati ᥫ᭡ (@Iluvvvchuu) August 24, 2026
Fans quickly picked up on the pattern across both incidents, joking that his signature stone-faced look was less indifference and more a running, silent protest against the bird.
The third incident we are talking about is something which happened after the World Cup. While on vacation in Los Angeles, Olise was spotted in the stands at BMO Stadium for a Leagues Cup match between LAFC and Toluca on August 8, 2026.
LAFC has a well-known pregame tradition where a live falcon named Olly flies across the stadium before kickoff, and video from the game shows a handler bringing the falcon over to Olise and inviting him to pet it.
Olise politely declined, keeping his hands to himself and his expression unchanged. Fans immediately connected the two moments, joking that he’d traveled all the way to LA just to stone-face another bird.
to achando que ele tem algum problema com passaropic.twitter.com/YcL6NDbaIU https://t.co/DiuqxdtfWR
— momo 🗽 (@unluckylise) August 24, 2026
The cockatoo itself has a story of its own. It became Bayern’s unofficial mascot after players lifted the porcelain statue from Käfer Tavern, a Munich beer hall, during the club’s title celebrations the previous season. Manager Vincent Kompany was asked by The Athletic who was responsible for taking it and declined to name names, while the tavern’s owner, Michael Käfer, was happy to let his bird carry on in its new role, effectively serving as Bayern’s stand-in trophy during celebrations ever since.
In reality, Olise has nothing against birds. His reaction to both the cockatoo and the LAFC falcon is just his usual, ultra-nonchalant self showing through, and his appearance at the LAFC game was little more than a standard holiday stop, helped along by Bayern’s official club partnership with the MLS side. Still, with two bird-related moments now on record, it’s easy to see why the internet isn’t quite ready to let the joke go.
