FIFA The Best awards: Zidane’s reaction to Big Shaq in 2018 is iconic | OneFootball

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GiveMeSport

·14 January 2022

FIFA The Best awards: Zidane’s reaction to Big Shaq in 2018 is iconic

Article image:FIFA The Best awards: Zidane’s reaction to Big Shaq in 2018 is iconic

It’s safe to assume that Zinedine Zidane had never heard of ‘Big Shaq’ before FIFA’s The Best awards ceremony in 2018.

But the legendary footballer-turned-coach had the *ahem* privilege of seeing the British rapper, real name Michael Dapaah, live on stage during a performance that looks even more bizarre in retrospect.


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Big Shaq was all the rage for a brief period in Britain back in 2017 after his comical song ‘Man’s Not Hot’ went viral.

The song went all the way to No. 3 in the UK Single Chart and also performed reasonably well in various other European countries including Sweden (15th in the charts), the Netherlands (20th) and even Germany (26th).

So when FIFA’s The Best awards were held in London in September 2018, Big Shaq was allotted a five-minute window at the Royal Festival Hall to entertain the great and good of the football world with his hit track.

Article image:FIFA The Best awards: Zidane’s reaction to Big Shaq in 2018 is iconic

Introduced onto the stage by actor Patrick Stewart, Big Shaq pointed out various high-profile members of the audience - Gareth Southgate, Didier Drogba, Ronaldinho and Kylian Mbappe - saying “I see you”, before coming to Zidane.

Mbappe, sat close to Zidane, smiled when he was singled out by the rapper. The young forward presumably knew who he was.

But judging by the stony-faced look on Zidane’s face after being picked out, the former Real Madrid manager had no clue who Big Shaq was or the song he was about to hear.

Article image:FIFA The Best awards: Zidane’s reaction to Big Shaq in 2018 is iconic

Video: Zidane's reaction to Big Shaq

Watch the footage here:

You can watch Big Shaq’s performance on the following video and, yeah, it all looks kind of embarrassing now, doesn’t it?

Let’s have a look back at some of the funniest tweets:

Needless to say, Big Shaq wasn’t invited back to FIFA’s awards ceremony in 2019.

And we very much doubt that ‘Man’s Not Hot’ entered Zidane’s playlist after the 2018 ceremony.

Article image:FIFA The Best awards: Zidane’s reaction to Big Shaq in 2018 is iconic

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