The modern football landscape is frequently littered with multi-millionaire athletes flaunting opulent lifestyles, but talented Arsenal defender Riccardo Calafiori has captivated the internet for an entirely different reason.
The ongoing viral trend of football fans collectively urging the Italian international to purchase a new mobile device is fueled by his personal social media posts and casual mirror selfies.
Despite earning a large, lucrative weekly salary playing at the highest level in the Premier League, the highly regarded left-back frequently shares candid photos and casual behind-the-scenes content in which he is seen using an iPhone with a severely cracked, smashed, and rapidly deteriorating glass screen.
Football fans all over the world find it hilariously relatable and endearing that an elite professional footballer refuses to repair or upgrade his severely damaged equipment.
This unexpected personal frugality has sparked a running joke on popular digital platforms such as X, with fans frequently flooding his comments section to demand that he finally buy a modern replacement or at the very least invest in a screen protector.
The zoomed-in panel of his selfie shows that the back glass of his premium iPhone is completely shattered, crushed, and peeling away, revealing the internal structural layers directly next to the three main camera lenses.
Walking around with such a battered piece of technology while being signed to one of England’s largest and wealthiest sporting institutions has completely
Naturally, passionate football fans on X have had a field day with the Italian star’s unconventional elevator photo, resulting in a massive wave of hilarious reactions and ongoing community engagement.
In which an Arsenal fan posted the image on X with a desperate, funny plea, to the player to fix his phone.
Calafiori please fix your phone ffs
validated the internet’s ongoing humor, transforming the elite defender into an absolute viral meme icon.
Several prominent fan accounts have chimed in to express their amusement, with some fans humorously shouting through posts,
The back of his phone!
And another fan commented,
I think he needs a new phone haha.
Other viral commentary highlighted the stark contrast between his lucrative profession and his daily tools, with one supporter claiming that the player is actively competing in the elite Premier League while carrying an electronic device that appears to have barely survived a literal war zone.
Bro is playing in the Premier League but using a phone that looks like it survived a war.
Another fan jokingly asked the public to start a charity campaign specifically to buy the star athlete a new screen protector.
Someone start a GoFundMe for Calafiori’s screen protector please.
Finally, this running gag has firmly cemented Calafiori as one of the most unintentionally down-to-earth and uniquely relatable figures in the entire Arsenal squad, proving to the global fanbase that even the most wealthy sports celebrities despise the annoying, frustrating hassle of going to the store and setting up a new phone.
