Are you an athlete? Do you play soccer? Could you score a penalty kick on a World Cup goalie to win the tournament if given the opportunity? If you do, you are not alone in that delusion.
According to a new study, a third of soccer fans think they could score a World Cup-winning penalty kick if given the chance.
That’s right. In a poll of 2,000 soccer fans, not only did a third of them think they could score a game-winning penalty kick in the World Cup, but over a fifth of them think they could “give the keeper the eyes” and trick the goalie into diving the wrong way.
Those aren’t the only extraordinarily unlikely feats soccer fans think they could pull off, according to the results of the study published by the Express.
Soccer fans also think they could do a better job of managing their team
One in six soccer fans also believes they would save at least one spot-kick if they were in the goal. 14% think they could score at least one goal if they replaced their team’s captain for the entire tournament. And 18% think they could pull off a “tactical foul.”
Soccer fans, much like fans in every other sport, also think they could do a better job than their team’s manager, as over 40% believe they could select a better squad than their team’s boss. A fifth of fans also think they could change the outcome of a football game using tactics and substitutions.
“You’ve got armchair managers who genuinely reckon they could do a better job than the gaffer, and folk kicking their own families out of the living room just to avoid a jinx,” said Betfred founder Fred Done, who commissioned the study.
“It’s madness, superstition and pure, blind hope. But when the tournament kicks off, total strangers become best mates, and everyone forgets the real world for a bit — because we’re all chasing the exact same dream.”