In a crossover that perhaps no one saw coming, social media has erupted with memes comparing famous soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo to Homelander of The Boys.
At first, the comparison might seem like a head-scratcher, especially since the only thing Homelander considers a sport is lasering people’s heads off and drinking copious amounts of milk. For those who need a refresher, the Homelander and Ronaldo comparisons emerged as a result of the Euro 2024 soccer tournament, where Ronaldo was playing for Portugal in a match against Slovenia.
The athlete’s behavior throughout the game caused much buzz online, as he was seen requesting to take all the free kicks and was visibly emotional when he failed to score them. Naturally, given the ferocity of The Boys’ fandom and the coincidental timing of the show’s currently airing fourth season, it wasn’t long before viewers equated Ronaldo’s behavior to Homelander’s.
Fans particularly drew parallels between the supposed authoritarian control Ronaldo displayed in taking all the free kicks for himself, and acting irrationally when things didn’t go his way. The seeming narcissism that underpinned Ronaldo’s choice to consistently take control of the game certainly has a whiff of Homelander energy.
So popular was the trend that it even attracted the attention of Antony Starr, the actor who portrays Homelander in The Boys. Resharing some of the memes on his social media, Starr wrote: “Don’t really get this but I’m enjoying it.” In any case, Ronaldo certainly isn’t the first person who has been compared to Homelander, with The Boys seeming to make a concerted effort to draw parallels between the villain and Donald Trump in recent seasons.
Of course, the comparison to Ronaldo is a far more light-hearted one, since the soccer player doesn’t have potential access to the highest levels of the US government.
In that spirit of light-heartedness, we’re sorting through the 10 best Ronaldo and Homelander comparison memes, based on creativity, accuracy, and response from the man behind Homelander himself. Even Ashley couldn’t predict this level of social media buzz.