World Cup’s ‘sexiest fan’ won modelling contract after being spotted in the crowd
The World Cup is a platform for the stars of tomorrow to make a name for themselves – and we're not talking about just the players.
Many fans have shot to fame after being picked out of the crowd by the cameras for their good looks. Back in 2014 at the tournament hosted by Brazil, that's exactly what happened to Belgium supporter Axelle Despiegelaere.
Then just a 17-year-old, she was snapped cheering on her nation ahead of their second group game again Russia, which they won 1-0. She was wearing a devil horn hat with the colours of her country on, in honour of their Red Devils nickname, and had a pair of pom poms in her hand.
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Axelle was joined by two of her fellow blonde friends, but she particularly stood out and became the sole focus for the photographers inside the legendary Maracana Stadium in Rio De Janeiro.
The images quickly went viral with the teen labelled football's "most beautiful supporter" and the World Cup's "sexiest fan", and were jumped upon by French cosmetics company L'Oreal who handed her a modelling contract.
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Axelle appeared in a social media campaign which included her giving a 'hair tutorial' video and looked to have landed herself a career for life.
However, the role went as quick as it came after she uploaded a picture of herself next to what appeared to be a dead oryx to social media before Belgium's round-of-16 tie with the USA.
"Hunting is not a matter of life or death. It's much more important than that..this was about one year ago..ready to hunt Americans today haha," she captioned the Facebook post.
After receiving heavy backlash in her comments section, Axelle later added: "I didn't mean to offend anyone..it was a joke."
But much like Belgium, who beat the USA 2-1 but lost 1-0 to Argentina in the quarter-finals, her dream was over. L'Oreal cut ties with her soon after, presumably because of the hunting snap in Africa – although they didn't confirm as such.
A spokesperson for the company told The Independent: "L’Oréal Professionnel Belgium collaborated with her on an ad hoc basis to produce a video for social media use in Belgium. The contract has now been completed."
Despite that, she still got to make a pitchside appearance at a Club Brugge game, the club she supports, the following month.
Eight years on, Axelle has a modest 25.6k Instagram followers. And although Belgium have already been dumped out of the World Cup in Qatar, there was no danger of her making an appearance anyway – as she recently got married to partner Emile Steyart.
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