England captain Harry Kane took a page out of Manuel Neuer's book by wearing a rainbow colored armband during his team's win against Germany - in a game in which he broke his goalscoring duck. Coincidence? Some fans claimed not.
The will-they-won't-they scenario surrounding support for the LGBT community by adopting the 'Pride' colors has been one of the narratives bubbling under the surface of the ongoing European Championships - with Germany being central to much of it.
Germany skipper Manuel Neuer stirred controversy when he broke UEFA guidelines by wearing a rainbow captain's armband in his team's games throughout the tournament, prompting UEFA to announce they were opening an investigation to what they feared was political symbology - only to eventually relent amid stinging criticism from several figures within the sport.
kane in the pride flag see what happens when you embrace the gays
The German national team attempted to double-down by petitioning European football's governing body to allow them to light up Bayern Munich's Allianz Arena ahead of a Euro 2020 fixture with Hungary, after the central European country passed legislation which banned the spread of information on homosexuality to minors.
The move was quickly shot down by UEFA - but Neuer and Germany appear to have found an ally in England's captain Harry Kane, who took a leaf out of Neuer's book by also wearing a rainbow-colored armband during England's 2-0 win at Wembley on Tuesday.
And some fans have speculated (perhaps tongue-in-cheek) that Kane's goalscoring impact against the Germans was helped by his decision to support to overtly support the LGBT movement.
"Kane in the pride flag," a fan wrote on Twitter. "See what happens when you embrace the gays."
The Tottenham man, who has been the subject of intense transfer speculation for much of the past couple of months, has flattered to deceive for much of Euro 2020 thus far but finally found the net late on with England's second against Germany after Raheem Sterling had opened the scoring ten minutes beforehand.
However, as was correctly pointed out by another fan in response, Neuer was also wearing the rainbow armband - so perhaps the rainbow armband being a good luck charm requires some further study.
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