Argentina will face France in the 2022 World Cup final but they may have already been put on the back foot.

Drake has bet on them to lift the trophy, leaving Lionel Messi and co hoping they haven’t been dealt a cruel jinx heading into the game.

In a video posted on social media with a friend, he said: “I’ll take Argentina, he’ll take France. That will be a vibe.”

The four-time Grammy award winner has often been accused of cursing athletes and sports teams he’s supported in recent years.

And such is players and fans tendency to get fixated on superstitions they believe will influence the outcome of games, that the ‘Drake Curse’ has taken on a life of its own…

What is the Drake Curse?

The ‘Drake curse’ has become one of the Internet’s biggest memes due to the downfall of sporting stars and teams after they have interacted with the Canadian rapper.

Put simply, if Drake wears a team’s shirt, poses for a photo alongside an athlete or has publicly voiced his support for any particular team or person, that team or person will go on to lose – even against the odds!

Roma even joked on social media in 2019 that they had banned all of their players from having their pictures taken with the pop star.

Drake Curse

2013: Toronto Raptors make Drake their global ambassador and earn a reputation for choking in big games

2014: Kentucky lose college basketball decider versus Wisconsin
2014: Miami Heat smashed 4-1 in NBA Finals by San Antonio
2015: Serena Williams shocked by Roberta Vinci in US Open semi-final
2016: Quarterback Johnny Manziel drops out of NFL having previously been a first-round draft pick
2018: Conor McGregor loses to Khabib Nurmagomedov
2019: Alabama suffer big loss to college football rivals Clemson
2019: Jadon Sancho’s Borussia Dortmund hammered by Bayern Munich
2019: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang benched as Arsenal lose at Everton
2019: Sergio Aguero misses penalty as Man City lose to Tottenham in Champions League
2019: PSG suffer heaviest league defeat in 19 years, losing 5-1 at Lille
2019: Anthony Joshua suffers shock defeat to Andy Ruiz Jr

Which athletes/ teams have fallen victim to the Drake Curse?

Anthony Joshua jokingly said he was a victim of the ‘curse’ after his American debut was marred by Jarrell Miller’s failed drug tests.

Little did AJ know that Miller’s replacement Andy Ruiz Jr. ended up handing him his first professional defeat - Sergio Aguero missed a penalty in a Champions League quarter-final against Tottenham after being snapped alongside the superstar.

Drake

Jadon Sancho was unable to help former club Borussia Dortmund in ‘Der Klassiker’ as Bayern Munich thrashed them 5-0 in 2019.

Five years earlier, Drake posed for a picture with Liverpool striker Daniel Sturridge in a season that saw the Reds famously collapse in the race for the Premier League title.

The ‘curse’ actually originated in basketball, before spreading into tennis, boxing, MMA and football.

Drake himself even attempted to affect the superstition, once wearing Philadelphia 76ers shorts when they lost to his basketball team, Toronto Raptors.

When his hometown side beat Orlando Magic in the 2019 NBA playoffs, Drake was reported to have told the waiting media afterwards: “You want me to talk about the curse, or you guys good?”

Has the Drake curse been lifted?

The trend has seemingly quietened down since it’s 2019 peak, with Drake also rubbing shoulders with a number of successful stars.

In October 2021, Drake was snapped standing next to compatriot Alphonso Davies days before Bayern Munich thumped Bayer Leverkusen 5-1.

That same month, Tyson Fury knocked out Deontay Wilder in their Las Vegas trilogy fight after he had been supported by Drake online.

And the Gypsy King later made light of the supposed bad omen on his Instagram stories, captioning a post: “Curse? No such thing pal.”