Barcelona Faces `Drake Curse’ Odds in Sunday’s El Clasico
In what can only be described as a “unique” promotion, Spanish giant Barcelona will sport Canadian rapper Drake’s OVO owl logo prominently on the front of their jerseys Sunday in a La Liga El Clasico match against longtime rival Real Madrid. Spotify has been the principle sponsor of Barcelona since March and the OVO logo will replace the Spotify logo on the front of the jersey for a limited time to celebrate the fact Drake is the first artist to reach 50 billion Spotify streams.
In recent years, however, Drake has been blamed for several high profile teams and athletes losing, directly after meeting the Grammy Award winner. Can the Catalans debunk the myth on Sunday?
Make sure to check out match odds for La Liga, English Premier League and Champions League soccer.
Drake Curse Odds
The Drake Curse is essentially the belief that any interaction with the Canadian rapper will lead to failure for an athlete or team. Supposed victims of the curse include UFC fighter Conor McGregor, tennis legend Serena Williams, boxer Anthony Joshua and English Premier League players Jadon Sancho and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, all of whom suffered upset losses after meeting Drake.
It’s not just individual athletes who can be affected by the curse, however. Drake was blamed for Alabama’s loss to Clemson in the 2019 College Football National Championship game. He is also supposedly the cause of Kentucky’s 10-year national title drought in college basketball and even Golden State’s epic collapse to Cleveland in the 2016 NBA Finals. Let’s try to not even think about the Toronto Maple Leafs’ epic history of playoff collapses, although maybe Leafs fans finally have an excuse?
Check out Sports Interaction’s exclusive Drake Curse odds for Sunday’s El Clasico.
Is the Curse Broken?
Perhaps the single biggest clue that the Drake Curse could be broken comes from the Six. Outside of Kawhi Leonard, diehard Raptors fan Drake was the face of the Dinos’ 2019 NBA title run. Few people thought the Raptors would ever compete for a title, let alone win one and they did it with Drake sitting courtside by the bench for almost every game.
Is the Raptors 2019 championship the exception that proves the rule? Well, since we’re talking about Barcelona let’s look at the soccer world and provide a much too detailed breakdown of Champagne Papi’s interaction with 13 soccer stars over the last decade and the results of their next games:
- Didier Drogba – Chelsea – April 2012 – 2-1 win vs. Benfica
- Frank Lampard – Chelsea – April 2012 – 2-1 win vs. Wigan
- Mario Balotelli – Manchester City – April 2012 – 2-1 loss vs. Arsenal
- Marcelo – Real Madrid – September 2014 – 2-1 loss vs. Atletico Madrid
- Neymar Barcelona – September 2014 – 2-0 win vs. Athletic Bilbao
- Paul Pogba – Manchester United – August 2016 – 2-1 win vs. Leicester City
- Daniel Sturridge – Liverpool – February 2017 – 2-0 win vs. Tottenham
- Sergio Aguero – Manchester City – March 2019 – 3-2 win vs. Swansea
- Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang – Arsenal – 2-0 win vs. Napoli
- Layvin Kurzawa – Paris Saint-Germain – April 2019 – 5-1 loss vs. Lille
- Wilfried Zaha – Crystal Palace – 3-1 loss vs. Manchester City
- Jadon Sancho Borussia Dortmund – June 2020 – 1-0 win vs. Fortuna Dusseldorf
- Alphonso Davies – Bayern Munich – October 2021 – 5-1 win vs. Bayer Leverkusen
You were warned the list would be much too detailed. Based on those results, only 31 per cent of soccer players have gone on to lose after meeting Drake, while 69 per cent have gone on to win. That’s good news for Canada’s World Cup hopes as superstar Alphonso Davies has already broken the Drake Curse.
Betting on the Drake Curse
Conclusion? The Drake Curse is not real, time to give the guy a break…but to be on the safe side, I’d still rather not see Drake in a Colorado Avalanche sweater any time soon.
