...Zurich, an inflatable grasshopper has attracted investment from Will Ferrell and pals
WEIRD WORLD OF FOOTBALL
When one of Swiss football’s most famous clubs fell on hard times, they knew how to turn things around – with a 25-foot inflatable grasshopper.
Former Champions League side Grasshopper Club Zurich, domestic champions on 27 occasions, lost their Hardturm home when the historic ground closed in 2007 and plans for a new arena on the site stalled.
Relegation to the second tier followed in 2019 – unable to get back to the top flight at the first attempt, they summoned the extra large insect, deploying the inflatable as the tunnel onto the pitch for home matches at the Letzigrund, which they share with neighbours FC Zurich.
A grasshopper may not be the scariest thing in the whole world (what’s it going to do, nibble you into submission?), but bemused visiting sides wilted and the club soon charged to promotion, then recruited former Wigan defender Matt Jackson as their president last summer – he’d previously been at Wolves, who have forged a partnership with them.
This January, in an attempt to continue their ascent back to honours, the club were bought by MLS side LAFC, who count Anchorman star Will Ferrell as one of their co-owners.
It’s presumably only a matter of time before he turns up, then gets accidentally trapped in the giant grasshopper of emotion.
WATCH OUT, HARRY
Harry Kane has put down roots by buying a house in Munich – a house where a man previously had a vasectomy from a ferret.
The plush Bavarian home was once used for rom-com movie Vaterfreuden, in which German actor Matthias Schweighofer – recently in Oppenheimer – plays a sperm donor who is strapped to a bed by a ferret prior to the procedure. Because why not?
Thankfully, Kane already has four children, but we still advise him to keep a close eye out for mischievous weasels – and we don’t mean Thomas Muller...
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