During the 1998 FIFA World Cup in France, an incident occurred that would go down not in official match records, but in football folklore.
Near the Arc de Triomphe in Paris burns the Eternal Flame, lit in 1921 to honor the Unknown Soldier of World War I. It is a deeply symbolic memorial and one of the most solemn sites in the city.
In July 1998, in the middle of World Cup celebrations, a 24-year-old Mexican football fan was arrested after the Eternal Flame was suddenly extinguished. French authorities charged him with public intoxication and “insulting the memory of the dead.”
What exactly happened?
Contemporary reports from the time state that the man poured a liquid onto the flame, causing it to go out. He was detained, questioned, and later released. The flame was quickly relit, and the memorial itself was not damaged.
However, as the story traveled across borders—especially through Latin American media and fan conversations—the details evolved. Over time, the anecdote transformed into a much more outrageous version:
that the fan had urinated on the Eternal Flame, extinguishing it.
To this day, that version remains unconfirmed by official records, yet it has become the most widely repeated one. Whether exaggeration, misunderstanding, or pure myth-making, the story stuck.
Today, the incident lives on as a bizarre footnote of World Cup history—a reminder of how football passion, alcohol, and mythology can collide, turning a brief police report into a legendary anecdote told and retold for decades.
Sometimes, football history isn’t written in goals…
but in stories no one forgets.