Portugal Soccer Fans Want Their World Cup Team to Grow Lucky 'Staches

I'm going to be honest here, I'm no fan of the mustache meme. It's old, it's tired and it stopped being funny a long time ago. In fact, even Matt Sebek of JoeSportsFan.com, whose logo is a mustachioed man in a ballcap, wrote last July that, "the whole 'growing mustaches for luck/attention' thing is somewhat played out," and that guy's about as big an expert on the topic as anyone.

Sebek's article was referencing the St. Louis Cardinals' decision to grow some good luck 'staches last season, which seemed to start with Rick Ankiel trying it out as a slump buster and moved to the entire pitching staff, and if I have my mustache lineage correct, most of the team. Of course, Albert Pujols, the best player on the team (and the planet), didn't shave his trademark goatee into a mustache, thus undercutting the entire endeavor and making the rest of the players on the Cardinals look like immature attention seekers.

Well, if fans of the Portugese national soccer team have anything to say about it, Cristiano Ronaldo, Ricardo Carvalho, Nani and the rest of the roster may be following in the Cardinals' lip-covered wake, as a Facebook group is petitioning the team to grow mustaches for the World Cup this summer. Per Off the Post:

A Facebook group calling for the Portugal national team to sport moustaches at this summer’s World Cup is gathering considerable support. The campaign wants all the squad to grow ‘taches for their trip to South Africa.

The organisers have imaginatively called the campaign Operação Bigode or Operation Moustache.

Fans of Operation Moustache have been actively adding Photoshops of what some of their stars will look like if the team joins in on the fun, with everything from the traditional push-broom style to the occasional handlebar. The group already has 4,700 members and growing – perhaps literally.

And let's face it, teams need to do something to stand out during the World Cup. Portugal thinks they have a team that's good enough to win the tournament, but if they don't, at least we'll remember how silly they looked in defeat.

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.