Dembele: The story behind this trend in Social Media today
05-10-2026
The social-media trend around Ousmane Dembélé is the “bye bye” phone-call celebration that still circulates widely in short video edits.It started in mid-April 2026 during Paris Saint-Germain’s Champions League quarter-final second leg at Anfield. Dembélé scored twice in the 2-0 win over Liverpool that sent PSG into the semi-finals. After each goal he put a hand to his ear as if answering a call, then sharply hung up.The gesture was a private nod, not a taunt. Hours before kick-off he had phoned a close friend, the French football influencer known as Clyver. On that call he told him the Paris camp should stay calm, that the club’s old problems were finished, and that they were on the way to the last four. After the match the influencer posted the story of the conversation, and Dembélé shared the celebration himself with a simple “allô” and phone emojis, tagging his friend. Some also linked the move to tennis player Ben Shelton’s similar hang-up celebration at the 2023 US Open, a gesture a tennis fan like Dembélé would have known.The clip spread quickly. On short-video platforms it turned into a lasting format: people mime the same answer-and-hang-up motion over Dembélé highlights, skill edits, or ordinary clips, often set to audio that plays on the “bye bye” or phone-call idea. Pages collecting those videos were still being updated as of early October 2026, which is why the celebration keeps resurfacing as a trend even months after the Anfield night.