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The twitter handle of Italian club, Roma, wittingly tweeted last night that its players have been banned from taking photos with Canadian rapper, Drake, until the end of the current season.
The hilarious announcement came following fears of the “Drake curse” making the rounds in the sports circle. The susperstition is that Drake may be jinxing sportsmen he takes photos with or even hangs out with.
In recent times, the players who posed for photos with Drake faced one performance calamity or the other. It is either their teams lose their very next game or they lose important match points.
Drake, 33, has spent the past month travelling across the UK and Europe on his Assassination Vacation tour and used every opportunity to meet favourite sports stars on the continent. Some of them attended his shows.
Last week, Paris Saint-Germain’s Layvin Kurzawa took a photo with Drake and at the weekend, PSG sensationally lost 5-1 to Lille. It was the team’s next game immediately after the photo session.
See list of other infamous incidents below:
- Paul Pogba saw Drake perform at the Manchester Arena and got a picture taken with him – not long before Manchester United lost 2-1 to Wolves in the FA Cup.
- Arsenal’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who was at one of Drake’s seven shows at the O2 in London. Arsenal lost to Everton the following weekend.
- Sergio Aguero of Manchester City took a snap with Drake at a show and missed a penalty kick in his club’s Champions League loss to Tottenham.
- Borussia Dortmund’s Jadon Sancho hung out with Drake and immediately after that, his team scandalously lost 5-0 to Bayern Munich.
- In 2015, Drake was spotted watching all Serena Williams tennis matches. That year, Serena lost her bid to become the first woman to win all four tennis Grand Slams in a calendar year since Steffi Graf did it in 1988. That year, underdog, Roberta Vinci, beat Serena in the US Open.
- Last year, Conor McGregor tapped out in the fourth round of his fight against Khabib Nurmagomedov. He had possed for a photo with Drake before the match!
It has however not been bad luck for all the players who hang out with the music star. It is just a coincidence but many who believe in superstitions are asking their favourite players to steer clear of Drake.
Drake’s full name is Aubrey Drake Graham. He is a multi-award winning rapper, singer, songwriter, actor, producer, entrepreneur and philantropist.
Despite the so-called “drake curse”, companies, brands and organisations will not stop looking for his face and signatures to promote their products and services. He has garnered several endorsement and ambassadorial deals with various companies and organisations. They include Sprite, Burger King, Whataburger, Toronto Raptors, Apple Music and a host of others.