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Weird week in football: Hats, chats, and Twitter gaffes

Reuters

Every Monday, theScore will highlight the most outlandish moments from the wacky, sometimes daft, and perennially entertaining world of European football. Here's what made us smile - or cringe - on the pitch this past week.

While the Premier League hobbled through a glut of holiday fixtures, the rest of Europe's top five leagues wisely took a break from winter worries to enjoy the festive period with family and friends.

Despite a dearth of matches on the continent, football was still its characteristically entertaining self on the British Isles. Olivier Giroud bagged the goal of the season, Harry Kane was comically self-deprecating after botching a penalty, and Swansea City continued its habit of keeping the local south Wales job centre in business with its latest managerial dismissal.

With 2017 in its infantile stages, here's a look at all things weird in the beautiful game:

Something rotten in Rotherham

Championship bottom-dwellers Rotherham United took to Twitter earlier in the week to bring attention to South Yorkshire Police’s anti-hate crime campaign, and in doing so, offered a glimpse of how The Millers keep the grass green at their Roundwood training ground.

A closer examination of Lee Frecklington's picture shows a couple of the Rotherham skipper's teammates taking a time out to spawn the lawn.

(Courtesy: @MillersPictures)

It would appear as if Football Leaks has its latest victims *heads for the door*.

Usain on Line 1

A jubilant fanbase took to Manchester United TV Saturday after late goals from the world's most expensive teenager, Anthony Martial, and the world's most expensive player, Paul Pogba, saw the Red Devils come from behind to top Middlesborough 2-1 at Old Trafford.

Among them was speedster Usain Bolt, who called in from Jamaica to compliment United's efforts, though understandably, host Mandy Henry doubted the identity of the caller claiming to be the world's fastest man.

"Our next caller is in Jamaica, we’re heading over there to speak to Usain – it’s not Usain Bolt is it?" said Henry. Well, actually...

Fair play, Mandy.

Twitter fingers Toni

Real Madrid midfielder Toni Kroos is the early pacesetter for 20-1-7's Tweet of the Year after the German World Cup-winner had some fun with numbers in reminding Brazilian supporters of the 7-1 drubbing on July 8, 2014 in Belo Horizonte.

The former Bayern Munich star was well within his rights after notching Man of the Match honours with a two-goal haul in the World Cup semi-final beatdown that saw Die Mannschaft advance to the finals against Argentina.

Spoiler alert for those who recorded the match: Germany topped La Albiceleste 1-0, besting both South American heavyweights in five-day window to win its fourth World Cup title.

Memphis the Madhatter

Enjoying a sabbatical from first-team matters at Manchester United, Memphis Depay posted a video on his Instagram account taking the mick out of journos obsessed with the Dutch winger's sartorial standards.

New Years resolution 😉🏊🏾⚽🎩🗣👍🏾 Happy New Year guys! ❤

A video posted by Memphis (@memphisdepay) on

The video cuts off before Depay presumably tells his favourite joke, "What did the hat say to the tie?"

"You hang around here ... I'll go on a head."

Full-Service Sammy

Even with the winter break on the continent, the game was no less interesting off the pitch, with the highlight of the week coming courtesy of Sevilla's Samir Nasri.

The on-loan Manchester City afterthought learned a valuable lesson in password protection on the heels of a visit to a Los Angeles clinic that has since prompted a probe by the Spanish Anti-Doping Agency.

Seems both Samir and his missus had the keys to his Twitter account, with the pair playing social media's version of the dueling banjos with a series of rather descriptive tweets.

At least this story has a happy ending.

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