On 17 June 2026 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Argentina beat Algeria 3-0 in the group stage of the 2026 World Cup, with Lionel Messi scoring all three goals. Zinédine Zidane watched from a box because his son Luca Zidane was in goal for Algeria and conceded the hat-trick. The FIFA broadcast repeatedly cut to the 1998 world champion, who — during a stalled Algerian attack around the 75th minute — was filmed shaking his head with a closed, fixed expression, described by Algerian press as a face of "rage impuissante".

That cutaway was clipped out of the live feed and reposted within hours: Algerian outlet TSA published the bare reaction clip, and it spread across TikTok as a stand-alone reaction template for watching something go wrong while being powerless to intervene. The framing carried an extra layer — a footballing legend forced to watch his son struggle — and fed a parallel wave of jokes that a famous surname does not inherit greatness, alongside a false rumour, denied by TSA, that Zidane had stormed the Algerian dressing room afterwards.