Former England and Chelsea left back Ashley Cole has continued in his attempts to become a walking, human meme after recreating his infamous awkward Roma team photo with Chelsea captain John Terry and One Direction’s Niall Horan. Just to quickly clarify: no, this isn’t a joke sentence from an alternate news dimension. This is real and it is happening.
The 33-year-old — who moved to Roma in the summer after a glittering professional career and a really rubbish romantic career — was pictured with his new teammates soon after his free transfer to the Italian capital, hovering just on the outskirts of the main group and looking like a general Billy-No-Mates.
The picture soon became one of those ‘viral hits’ that everyone is so fond of, with fans Photoshopping lurking Ashley into various famous photos — including one of his ex-wife Cheryl Versini Fernandez posing with her new husband. BANTAH. BANTAH. BANTAAAAAAAAAAAH.
Anyway this weekend Ashley recreated the pose with former teammate John Terry and, bizarrely, One Direction’s Niall Horan, who was out celebrating his 21st birthday. What’s going on, Niall? Why are you spending your birthday night — arguably your biggest birthday, ever — hovering slightly near Ashley Cole? Come on, mate. You can do better than that. Can’t you? Do you need some mates? Do you need to make a few friends? Can’t your mum ask one of her friends if you can hang out with their kids, or something? Can’t you spend time with your band? Come on. Come on.
“Birthday party for @NiallOfficial enjoy now u a man #doing #what #i #do,” Ashley captioned the photo. Niall replied, “absolute genius”. 51,000 retweets, 87,000 favs. Banter so banterous the shockwaves are still being felt through the earth today. What a world. What a world.