Canada Men's Natonal Team head coach John Herdman has hilariously responded to seeing his fake naked picture on the front of a Croatian tabloid.
Herdman caused quite the stir when he claimed that Canada would "f*** Croatia up" ahead of their second World Cup group match, something that's not gone down well with the nation. In response to his comments, he's was brutally mocked by Croatian tabloid 24 Sata with a fake naked picture of him on the front page.
The tabloid covered his manhood with a Canadian flag in the shape of a maple leaf, which was also accompanied with the slogan: "You have the mouth, but do you have the balls as well?" The two sides meet on Sunday, and Herdman has since seen the cover and responded.
"I got a text from my wife saying 'you need to workout before you come home," Herdman joked as he referenced the skinny physique shown in the naked cover. Brilliant (laughing).
"Look I think those comments after the game, it was an emotional moment I had in the flash interview. I think it's a learning moment, I was a little bit too honest and you get those moments in your career.
"My first World Cup, yeah I'll learn from that one and just keep moving forward. But I think the beauty for our boys is we've kept it light and bright, we are having a good laugh behind the scenes and I'm excited for this opportunity."
The initial comments came after Canada lost 1-0 to Belgium in their World Cup opener, although the scoreline didn't reflect the performance. Canada were by far the better team, and had 21 shots during the match as they humbled Belgium.
But they were wasteful in front of goal and left with nothing to show for it, and even missed a penalty in the first half as Thibaut Courtois saved Alphonso Davies' effort. Regardless of the result, Herdman was proud of their performance, and vowed to go for Croatia on Sunday.
"I told them (Canada) they belong here and we’re going to go and eff--- Croatia," he said with a smile in FIFA’s official post-game pitchside interview. "That’s as simple as it gets."
His comments caused a stir, which led to the revealing front cover from the Croatian tabloid. The pre-game taunting has only added to the anticipation, on what is a make or break clash for both Croatia and Canada.
Croatia drew their opening match against Morocco 0-0, and know that a win is needed as they face Belgium in the final group match. Canada need to pick up some points to keep their hopes alive, and they certainly proved against Belgium that they're not just there to make up the numbers.
