The new social media language of the football transfer market For European clubs it has been another summer of memes, wordplay, and short films

The Italian football transfer market summer ended two weeks ago, marked by a frame that went viral within minutes and would have seemed an unthinkable fantasy just a couple of weeks prior. It featured Jamie Vardy, unforgettable leader of Leicester’s Ranieri-era triumphs and a quintessential “working-class hero,” arriving in Cremona and embracing his new fans, presented as "StradiVardy". This type of announcement lights up social feeds and unites everyone—partly due to the popularity of Cremonese’s new number 10 (by the way, the club sold more jerseys in the week following his arrival than in the entire previous season), and partly because of the club’s presentation on its own channels, paying homage to the city’s history. "StradiVardy" embodies two increasingly common traits in clubs’ communication during the transfer market: wordplay and local culture references. Everyone has their own style. In the past, for instance, Inter raised the bar with mini-films produced alongside sponsor Paramount+, or later Milan with a comic-story collection. Today, creativity and freshness that capture the public’s attention come from smaller clubs—like Cremonese, or perhaps more than anyone else, Genoa.

It doesn’t always require a big-screen production; most of the time, creativity, humor, pop culture references, a bit of trash culture, and inside jokes are enough, as long as it doesn’t cross into cringe (spoiler: sometimes it inevitably does). That said, the charm of major offline announcements and fan gatherings hasn’t disappeared. Recently, Roma wrote two unforgettable chapters with the Dybala Day at the Colosseo Quadrato and the reception of Romelu Lukaku; similarly, Fiorentina a few years ago spotlighted Frank Ribéry at Artemio Franchi like a premiere. Then there are the more unusual international cases: Porto this summer offered a spoiler-proof announcement masterclass, revealing Luuk de Jong live before a friendly at Estadio do Dragao; or the nearly unmatched (to say the least) case of Arturo Vidal at Colo Colo in Chile, where the ex-Juventus and Inter player descended from a helicopter in traditional attire and rode around the stadium on horseback.

Case Studies

All very theatrical, but the present-day transfer market increasingly lives on the small screen. Presentations of new signings in social formats have become a festival of content creation with their own codes, for fans who now await announcements with the same excitement as they anticipate on-field debuts. Vardy’s presentation showed how a club can transform its identity into a story, with Stradivari turning into “StradiVardy,” accompanied by a musical journey through the city’s iconic locations and the historic Violin Museum.

Some have made this grammar of communication systematic, starting with Genoa, which invented a recognizable style. A digital slang often centered on rhymes and wordplay, making the Grifone a true case study for Serie A clubs (and beyond), emulated everywhere. Some of the most original examples of recent transfer windows include Sebastian Otoa’s Toy Story-style presentation (“Otoa Story”, complete with “You’ve got a friend in me”) and the cereal box “Cornet flakes” for Maxwel Cornet; Lieutenant Columbo references for Lorenzo Colombo, Homer Simpson for Albert Gronbaek; or “Oh-na-na, what’s my name?” for Jean Onana, “The Big Ben Theory” for Ben Siegrist, and a dinner receipt for Hugo Cuenca.

Hit after hit, and a narrative vein that extends beyond the transfer market to other club life moments: think of De Winter replacing Lewis Hamilton in an iconic Maranello photo, or Bad Bunny’s album cover with Marassi in the background. Mention must also be made of Udinese, introducing Nicoló Zaniolo with Zorro’s “Z”, and Cagliari presenting Gaetano Oristanio “in Cagliari, not Oristano”; or, following the trend of geographic jokes, Torino posted a fruit salad to announce Eljif Elmas last January. In the lower leagues, consider Padova’s 1970s-style “Saturday Night Fever” video with Bee Gees music for Papu Gómez.

Evolution and Precedents

The evolution of mini-films was spearheaded by Inter, with twelve episodes of “New Brothers”—one for each signing—released between 2023 and 2024. From the first for Marcus Thuram (“Panther Instinct”) to the last for Davy Klaassen (“Let There Be Magic”), including arguably the best: “Pagine a Milano” for Davide Frattesi and “The Forbidden Gate” for Emil Audero. Even more cinematic, if not in budget then in concept, was Spezia’s trailer for Gianluca Lapadula, echoing Jack Torrance in *The Shining*; or, going back to 2021, Cagliari’s “Kevin is here” for Strootman’s arrival, referencing *Home Alone*. Genoa closed the circle of Hollywood references with their remake of “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” trailer to announce Ruslan Malinovskyi in 2023. Another recurring theme is wordplay with players’ names: Genoa, for example, used Aaron Martin linked to Aston Martin, and “Haps I did it again” for Ridgeciano Haps. Other examples include Bologna (Saelemaekers with a salamander photo and Pink Panther music), Roma (“All roads lead to Rom…elu Lukaku”), and Monza (Danilo D’Ambrosio’s face replacing Sant’Ambrogio on a church window).

Finally, there are the minimal cases, speaking the language of inside jokes without wasting characters. For Massimiliano Allegri’s return to Juventus and Maurizio Sarri’s to Lazio, the two clubs limited themselves to an image of Minnesota (a nod to horse racing and Max’s favorite horse) and a cigarette emoji (Sarri’s trademark), respectively. Fiorentina, for example, conveyed Parisi’s short journey from Empoli to Florence with a single photo of his exit along the highway.

International Football

This is obviously not exclusive to Italy, but a new communication trend increasingly adopted worldwide over the past three to four years. In England, West Ham once turned Joao Mario into a Super Mario video game level, while more recently Brighton renamed *The Simpsons* as “The Signing” to present Bart Verbruggen. Bristol City used the “Wilson!” scream from *Cast Away* for Kane Wilson. In France, Rennes played “mirror” with Nemanja Matic’s origin (Rome), ending a reel showing the Serbian midfielder walking through the city with the text “all roads lead to… Rennes.” In Germany, Bayern Munich chose self-celebration for Harry Kane, showing the ex-Tottenham striker watching his own story in a cinema.

In Spain, there’s the “Cage in Cage” photo when the current Milan defender signed for Villarreal. Across the Atlantic, Flamengo (Brazil) presented Saul Niguez this summer by reimagining the *Better Call Saul* poster. And no doubt there are countless other gems to be discovered by diving into club social media worldwide and catching the often “domestic” references dominating these contents.