Of all the potential uses of the “polar bear in Arlington, Texas” reaction image — which has become a common incredulous online response to any situation in which one person or element seems dramatically out of place — there may never have been one as apt as in reply to the social media video that Kansas Athletics posted on Thursday morning of Riyad Mahrez in Allen Fieldhouse.
Yes, the 35-year-old winger, famous for his role in Leicester City’s improbable run to the 2016 Premier League title and a five-year stint with Manchester City later in his career, somehow found himself shooting a decidedly different ball on James Naismith Court in what KU’s post called “the cathedral of college basketball,” in the latest example of the sort of culture clash that Americans on social media have found quite delightful in the early days of the World Cup.
Mahrez also, in a separate video posted an hour earlier, kicked a field goal through the uprights at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium, and he and his teammates stopped by the batting cages at Hoglund Ballpark.
Mahrez is, of course, the captain and most famous member of the Algerian national team that has been staying and training in Lawrence in advance of a pair of World Cup matches in Kansas City, Missouri.
KU Athletics must have known its facilities would make a strong impression on the Algerians based on a previous experience prior to their arrival at the team base camp.
“When they were here a couple months ago, their head of strength and conditioning — actually his son works at UMKC, I think he’s a manager for the soccer team there — and we invited them to come to Allen for a basketball game, and they got to experience that, and they’re like, ‘Holy cow, this is awesome,'” KU deputy athletic director Jason Booker said, on Thursday “and then we toured them through the Booth and indoor facility, and they were just like, ‘Holy cow.”
Thursday’s visit brought some praise of its own — Booker said that a FIFA site representative who works for Paris Saint-Germain, the European champion, described the KU football weight room as “three times or 10 times nicer than ours,” even as PSG’s ranks among the best in the sport.
“So it was a good reminder, because they were just blown away with the size and scope of Anderson (Family Football Complex) and the training facility,” Booker said. “And we wanted to, not show it off, but a little bit — but also, you know, they were out kicking field goals.”
Booker said he had joked that Algeria likely wouldn’t let its players do so because of the risk of “somebody pulling a hamstring or something.”
“And then Mahrez is out there kicking field goals, and I’m like, ‘Wow. This is pretty cool,'” Booker said. “We couldn’t get them off the basketball court, by the way. They were shooting for like 20 minutes. They didn’t want to leave.”
A video posted by KU Athletics, soundtracked by Algerian artist Rachid Taha’s “Rock El Casbah,” depicts the Algerians deploying all sorts of interesting techniques for throwing footballs and shooting basketballs (and converting some field goals along the way).
They’ll get back to more familiar ground in the days ahead as they prepare to face Argentina at Arrowhead Stadium at 8 p.m. on Tuesday night.
