Adil Rami has revealed that he made a rather embarrassing faux-pas while attempting small talk with the president of Croatia in the aftermath of the 2018 World Cup final.
Rami and France emerged victorious over Croatia at the Luzhniki Stadium but, perhaps intoxicated by a potent cocktail of sporting triumph and inhaled dry ice fumes, the centre-half ended up cramming his entire size 10 boot into his mouth while attempting light chit-chat with Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic.
As quoted by 20 Minutes, here is Rami’s first-hand account of the cringe-inducing conversation:
After the World Cup Final, the President of Croatia looked at me and said ‘nice moustache’. And I told her, ‘I love Mykonos’. I don’t know why but I’ve always confused Greece and Croatia.
She said ‘thank you’ and she left.
Just to make matters worse, it duly transpired that Olivier Giroud had overheard the entire thing.
Then, Olivier looks at me and says: ‘Are you stupid? Mykonos is Greece.’
I told him, ‘Oh god, I don’t know anymore. It’s okay, I’m world champion!’
Can’t argue with that, even if Rami’s grasp of fairly straightforward European geography is still highly suspect.
If only there was a suitable French phrase for making such an embarrassing, stumbling remark in a social situation such as this.