France playmaker Antoine Griezmann celebrates the go-ahead goal in the World Cup Final by whipping out a popular Fortnite celebration called ‘Take The L’.
When it comes to popular culture, few games can compete with Fornite in terms of relevance right now. The battle royale title has etched itself into gaming history by involving the likes of Drake, Major League Baseball, and even recently controversial figure (and unassuming player) Roseanne Barr. Today, football fans around the world who tuned into the World Cup Final got an unexpected dose of Fortnite after France playmaker and de facto penalty kick taker Antoine Griezmann scored the game’s first goal. To celebrate, Griezmann ran to the fans and performed the game’s now-infamous “Take The L” emote.
Griezmann seems to have the taunting jig down to a fine science, which makes sense considering this isn’t the first time he’s doled out out: the Frenchman did the same celebration during his go-ahead goal in France’s Round of 16 World Cup victory over Argentina, and had even whipped it out during Atletico Madrid’s triumph in the Europa League Final. This time, however, there’s no bigger stage for him to perform the dance – Griezmann legitimately put Fortnite on display during the world’s biggest sporting event.
Gamers and footy fans alike can take a look at Griezmann’s “Take The L” Fortnite dance below:
Not everyone is happy with Griezmann’s taunting gesture, which many view as being disrespectful to the opposing team. Their words will have a hard time reaching Antoine’s ears tonight though, as he will be busy celebrating France’s 4-2 World Cup win over Croatia.
The World Cup victory means France are world champions for only the second time in the country’s history, with this being their first win on foreign soil. While it’s unclear if Antoine will play any Fortnite himself in the coming days, one could expect several French national team fans to flaunt their World Cup-themed cosmetic France kits in the game over the next few days.
Given that FIFA added dabbing once the likes of Paul Pogba and Jesse Lindgard took to doing them, it will be interesting to see if EA Sports considers including Griezmann’s Fortnite celebration in future iterations of FIFA. For now, however, we imagine many other football players may just be inspired to whip out their own personal Fortnite celebrations in the future.
Fortnite is available now on iOS, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Switch.
