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28th Jul 2015

The Mexican fan who pestered the Dutch FA for 392 days finally gets a reply…and it’s brilliant

Nooruddean Choudry

If at first you don’t succeed…tweet the b*stardsĀ into submission.

OnĀ June 29, 2014, in the last 16 of the World Cup, Arjen Robben did this against Mexico…

Technically, there was probably enough contact between the clumsyĀ foot ofĀ Rafael Marquez and a flailing Robben to justify a penalty. But goingĀ down like a sniper victim didn’t exactly help.

The resulting spot-kick was duly converted, resulting in the Netherlands progressing into the quarter-finalsĀ asĀ Mexico were left to bemoan their rotten luck.

Twitter user @Josesomor26 wasn’t having any of it. He was convinced it wasn’t a penalty and took to the social medium to let the Dutch FA know.

His message was simple ‘no era penal’ – it was not a penalty. He included both the Mexican and Dutch FA, as well as Fifa.

And then the next day, he did it again. And then again. And again. In fact he didn’t stop. Every single day after waking up for 392 nights in a simmering rage, he’d convey the same messageĀ – no era penal.

Well, on Sunday, Mexico won the Gold Cup. And on Monday, amid celebrations, Jose felt duty bound to remind the Dutch FA once again…

That’s right – 1 year and 28 days later he was still at it. Except on this day, there was a reply. The Dutch FA took the opportunity to congratulate the one and only @Josesomor26 on his country’s victory…

It was a wonderful touch and extremely magnanimous of them. But even better was the hashtag they used at the end of the tweet: #erapenal – ‘It was a penalty’.