Football club makes GTA San Andreas-inspired Vignette for new player
English football club Burnley FC recently signed striker Andreas Hountondji from French team Caen, and they made a GTA San Andreas reference with regards to the player's name. The official X account of Burnley FC (@BurnleyOfficial) made a short vignette that seems to be inspired by GTA San Andreas and featured Hountondji.
The 22-year-old striker from Montry, France, plays for the Benin national team, and Burnley FC secured him from Caen on a four-year deal for an undisclosed transfer fee. It seems that Grand Theft Auto's popularity has caught on to the world of football, as the hype for GTA 6 keeps increasing every day.
Burnley FC makes GTA San Andreas-inspired tribute for Andreas Hountondji
Burnley FC made a post earlier today (July 17, 2024) titled " ̶S̶a̶n̶ ̶ Andreas is in town." The "San" part was seemingly cut off from the sentence, referring to the new striker's name. The post contains a video that showcases CJ's iconic lines, "Ah s***, here we go again," followed by a Grand Theft Auto-style portrait of Andreas Hountondji in a Burnley FC jersey.
The video features the GTA San Andreas theme song, and says "Burnley Football Club Presents" instead of the usual "Rockstar Games Presents." Instead of the GTA San Andreas logo, it shows Hountoundji's full name in a San Andreas-style font. It then continues with a montage of the player in real life, presented just like the San Andreas intro, where different locations and characters from the game are presented through collage-like windows.
They even went the extra mile and showcased the Burnley FC logo in a spray-paint format, much like how the GTA San Andreas intro reveals the Rockstar Games logo. Fans were naturally quite pleasantly surprised by the video, with one user calling it the "best announcement video this summer."
Andreas Hountondji started his career at the Ligue 2 team SM Caen and has played at clubs like Quevilly-Rouen and Orleans while on loan. He recently scored 14 goals across various competitions for Rodez AF while on loan and has a total of eight appearances for his national team. Here's what he said about his transfer, according to a BBC report:
"I chose to come here because of the big interest shown from the club. It's a club that gives opportunities to young players, so this is one of the big reasons I chose to be here, and I love English football. I have spoken with the boss [Scott Parker] and it was quite a good discussion. We spoke about values, principles, and the way we play, it was perfect for me."
GTA San Andreas was released back in 2004 for the PS2, followed by a PC and Xbox release the next year. The game is often considered one of the best in the series, owing to its customizability, RPG-like features, three different explorable cities in a relatively large map for the time, and more.