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Socceroos striker Jason Cummings couldn’t get his hands on a France jersey after their World Cup clash.
Jason Cummings won’t forget his first World Cup in a hurry.
The Scotland-born striker was part of the Socceroos squad that defied the odds to reach the last 16 of the tournament in Qatar, eventually bowing out after a creditable 2-1 loss to eventual champions Argentina.
But it is an off-the-field incident that the colourful Central Coast Mariners frontman will likely remember most after being brutally snubbed by not one, but two France stars following their 4-1 loss the defending championsin their opener in Al-Wakrah.
The 27-year-old Cummings – who came off the bench against the French – told The Project Australia he had sought out Kylian Mbappe after the game to swap shirts with the Paris Saint-Germain superstar.
“I went for the top boy Mbappe – and he told me to meet in the change rooms,” Cummings recalled of their fateful encounter.
“So I went to the changing room and the kit man was there and I gave him my top and 10 minutes later he came out with my jersey and says ‘Nah, absolutely not, he [Mbappe] doesn’t want to swap’.”
Despite that slight, Cummings wasn’t about to give up on his hunt for a souvenir to take Down Under. Spotting Mbappe’s striker partner Olivier Giroud in the corridor, he made his move – only to be snubbed again, in even more humiliating fashion.
“So when I was walking back to my changing room and I’ve seen Giroud, as handsome as ever, and I asked him, ‘Giroud, please man, can I get your shirt mate? I’m a big fan, can I get your shirt?’”, a laughing Cummings said of the former Arsenal targetman, who became France’s all-time leading goalscorer during the tournament.
“And he just walked past me, pretended he never spoke English and he’s been in the Premier League for 10 years!
“He just walked right past me.”
Yet that wasn’t the end of Cummings’ woes. His shirt-swapping sob story made its way back to Giroud, who responded with the flair he is known for on the pitch with a withering social media putdown.
“Hi Jackson Irvine, how is my English mate?” Giroud wrote to Cummins’ Socceroos team-mate on Twitter, in a post featuring a picture of the St Pauli midfielder’s shirt and three laughing emojis.
“What a man! I can confirm we exchanged our hair care routines in perfect English,” the pony-tailed Irvine joked in response.
At least Cummings had better luck with Argentina superstar Lionel Messi, sharing a selfie with the Golden Ball winner and even giving him some friendly pointers on Instagram.
“Do the basics right Leo. Don’t play the occasion, play the game. All the best, Cumdog,” he wrote, signing off with his nickname.
Messi clearly took that sage advice on board, scoring a further three goals in the knockout stages as he went on to win the World Cup for the first time.
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