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13th Mar 2017

Young Arsenal fan embarrasses Per Mertesacker with oldest trick in the book – and he doesn’t react well

Brave kid to laugh in his face like this

Nooruddean Choudry

Per Mertesacker is always up for a laugh.

Arsenal fans may have given the former Werder Bremen man the affectionate nickname ‘BFG’ to mean ‘Big Fucking German’, but he really does come across as a big friendly giant to boot. He is always genial and relaxed, and forever ready to break out into one of his trademark broad smiles. So much so that it can lead to awkward moments like this…

His normal cheery demeanour made this less than cordial encounter with a young Gooner somewhat surprising. The 32-year-old was suited up as he wasn’t playing, and was met with an outstretched hand to shake as he walked off the pitch. Being the gent that he is, he went to shake the hand, that was swiftly pulled away.

In fairness it was pretty disrespectful, as was laughing in his face afterwards. But upon viewing Per’s reaction to the age-old gag, we wouldn’t want to get on the wrong side of the big German…