By Twitter sniff test standards, it had the air of a legitimate, official account (albeit without the blue check mark).
The account @GeZelalem, purporting to be the "official Twitter account - Gedion Zelalem," on Tuesday posted a simple emoji. A US flag.
And so with an entire US national team fan base still eagerly hoping the Arsenal reserve midfielder finally obtains his US citizenship and pledges his future to the USMNT, the emoji took on a life of its own (CLICK HERE to get a taste of the hysteria). What felt like an early Christmas present was retweeted over two thousand times.
Only for two veteran American soccer scribes to pour a cold bucket of reality on the entire afternoon:
