Kylian Mbappe and Antoine Griezmann play spectacularly together.
The video shows magical football performances from headers and deflections to spectacular free kicks. In the background, the enthusiastic cheering of the narrators roars and the dramatic theme music.
The finishes are amazing.
Then there is a startling twist.
– Only Les Bleus can give us these feelings. But you didn’t see them anyway, it says in the video.
The material is rewinded and it is revealed to the viewers that the video has been completely edited.
In reality, the French women’s national football team is responsible for the skillful performances and spectacular goals.
The player who looked like Griezmann was real Sakina Karchaoui and looked like Mbappe Estelle Cascarino.
A rare example
The video, which went viral, has received a lot of praise. Fans have admired the visual effects and the message contained in the video.
– I was definitely lost, one of the viewers wrote on Reddit.
– An intelligent way to challenge people’s prejudices, summed up another.
– A rare example of a great football advertisement, AFP correspondent Simon Evans in turn beamed on Twitter.
The research disproves the assumption
Women’s soccer is often criticized for a lack of skill or toughness. It is seen as less exciting and of higher quality.
Although the description of women’s sports as boring and slow has decreased, comments are still encountered from time to time. Many soccer viewers do not value women’s sports as highly.
According to a recent study by the University of Zurich however, the spectators evaluated the players’ performances differently when they could not identify the gender.
The research revealed that men’s and women’s soccer performances were judged to be of equal quality when the gender of the players was obscured by editing the video.
The participants rated men’s performances as the highest quality only when they knew they were watching men. 613 people participated in the study.
– Our result refutes the assumption that the low demand for women’s football is based on the quality of the performances of the female players, the author of the study Carlos Gómez stated in a press release.
Brilliant video
Researcher of digital culture Riikka Turtiainen describes the video as genius. Turtiainen sees that the video disarms those who have slandered women’s football.
– The famous arguments have perhaps been that it’s so bad and women are naturally so much slower, less skilled and weaker, which is a biological fact in a way.
– But these arguments are often used without really knowing anything about the current situation of the sport. This was a genius video in itself.
Questioning the world of values
In the eyes of many viewers, the video seems to have evoked a strong emotional reaction. Turtiainen sees this because the video shows the prejudices that prevailed in the sports world.
– In the past, it has been the norm that we have followed men’s team sports. Maybe this video shows us something we haven’t been able to think about and question. That video questions our world of values, says Turtiainen.
Turtiainen reminds that football has long been thought of as a masculine and male-dominated sport. According to the researcher, however, for the past five years, there has been a more active questioning of why when talking about football or ice hockey, men’s sports are always talked about.
– That fact has not been seriously questioned, why women’s sport is secondary and why it has not been considered as a sport. It is taken as a given fact and women are also used to watching men’s team sports. They haven’t questioned why we always watch men’s games either.
However, according to Turtiainen, the video shows that it is the same sport, whether played by women or men. He also sees that how the match is produced and televised also affects the enjoyment.
– It’s also about how it’s shown, how it’s filmed and how we see slow-downs and replays. A lot is also about the media spectacle that we are used to watching. If the women’s game is as well made and produced, it is also more entertaining. This is what we wanted to show.
The FIFA World Cup will be played from 20 July to 20 August. In New Zealand and Australia. shows all matches live. You can find everything about World Cup football on ‘s competition website.