LONDON, England, January 14- Manchester United winger, Ashley Young, has ‘won the 2013 Fallon d’ Floor’ spoof award for his reputed diving according to one of the most hilarious memes that followed the Monday night FIFA Ballon d’ Or gala.
Labelled the “only award any cheating b*stard in the game aspires to win,” Young was the outright winner for gems such as the tumble he took in their UEFA Champions League match away to Real Sociedad in November that ended 0-0 going viral on the internet.
Young won a penalty in the second half after a challenge from Markel Bergara – which was missed by Robin van Persie – as United drew in Spain.
Then, the England international was mocked on social media as the star of spoof movies, Dive Hard 2 (Die Hard 2/Bruce Willis) and You Only Dive Twice (You Only Die Once/James Bond) among others.
Twitter handle @bbcspoof was the first to declare Young the 2013 Fallon d’ Floor winner and that soon went viral alongside the tear swept face of Portuguese wizard Cristiano Ronaldo accepting the Ballon d’ Or for the first time since 2008 in Zurich.
His new manager, David Moyes, warned Young, 28, about his conduct earlier in the season following a series of simulation incidents and he has stayed a nominee of the Fallon d’ Floor award almost week-in-week out since the mock account was set up on Twitter.
“I’m of the view that retrospective viewing of diving should be more important than some of the technology they are talking about bringing in. It would make the referee’s job an awful lot easier if that was there.
‘If you do it and you get banned for it, it wouldn’t take long before you cut it out. It wouldn’t take much — four or five people on a panel, referees, players and managers. It could be easily done,” Moyes said last season.
And earlier this season after the winger dived against Crystal Palace, the United boss stated, “I’ve always said I don’t like diving. He deserved to get booked. I don’t want any of my players diving; I don’t want anybody doing it. I will definitely say to Ashley that it is not what I want,” before dropping the player.
