Carlos Alcaraz has viral moment at World Cup for celebrating disallowed goal wildly

Monday, 20 July 2026 at 15:45

Carlos Alcaraz may not be on court right now, but certainly he made his presence felt at the World Cup final for those who are missing the leading Spanish light as he became a bit of a social media meme during Sunday's proceedings.

Spain won 1-0 over Argentina. At the 96th minute mark, Nico Williams put the ball in the net courtesy of a Mikel Merino pass. But the goal was disallowed seconds later. Prompting a hilarious reaction from Alcaraz in the process.

This reaction has since gone viral across social media platform. The clip of Alcaraz in particular went viral garnering over 2 million views and over 105k likes.

Alcaraz goes from celebrating to down trodden

This after Alcaraz and actress Jung Ho-yeon were given the honour of presenting the World Cup champion's trophy before the match. He then took his place in the stands albeit he was in fact sporting a wrist brace showing that perhaps he isn't fully back.

"My boy is a walking meme now," one commenter wrote. "He turned football Twitter into a 24/7 meme factory and somehow we’re all still here for it.”

He has no idea what he has done for football twitter 😭😭 pic.twitter.com/b5rOj9gdR4 https://t.co/BzIGN1s9yd
— AB⚕ (@AbsoluteBruno) July 19, 2026

“Happiness left his face real quick," another said. “This is going to come in very handy when he plays next," another then wrote. "The real definition of “not so fast."

Albeit they soon celebrated and Spain won the tie. No doubt too a lot of sore heads this morning in Alcaraz's hotel who is enjoying his time off ahead of a return so likely presumably he might stay in the States for a while to prepare for Cincinnati.

Samuel GillEditor-in-Chief

Samuel Gill is the Chief Content Officer (CCO) of TennisUpToDate.com, a role he has held since 2020. He is responsible for editorial governance across the platform, including setting content standards, overseeing accuracy and consistency, and guiding long-term editorial strategy. Since joining, he has contributed more than 10,000 articles and editorial pieces across the TennisUpToDate network, playing a central role in the daily operation and development of the site.

Based in Leicester, Samuel has a broad background in tennis media. In his current role, he works closely with editors and writers to ensure coverage meets clear journalistic standards, with particular attention to verification, consistency, and timely updates when new information becomes available.

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