Top soccer club wishes a “Happy Pride month” to all “Gooners” and… wait, what?!

Thank you, Arsenal.

Mark Mark
Jun 2, 2026 - 20:00
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Rainbow laces on a soccer boot
(Photo: Kai L Connell/Shutterstock.com)

Among the many sports teams marking the start of Pride Month yesterday was North London soccer club Arsenal.

The team is one of the most famous in the world right now. They came out on top of the UK’s Premier League recently. It was the first time in 22 years that it scooped the accolade.

It also made it to the finals of the UEFA Champions League (UCL) last Saturday. They lost the Europe-based final to Paris Saint-Germain (PSG).

On Sunday, the club held a team procession on open-top buses through North London, attracting hundreds of thousands of supporters to watch.

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Following such a headline-grabbing event, on Monday, it marked Pride month with a message on social media saying, “Happy Pride month to all Gooners celebrating ❤”

The Gunners and Gooners

As most people in England will know, Arsenal are dubbed the Gunners (its logo is a cannon — and an arsenal is a place where arms and weapons are made). Since the 1980s, its fans have been dubbed ‘Gooners’, a twist on Gunners.

The club routinely gives a shout-out to gooners. In fact, it made a similar Pride post last year.

And here’s one that was posted a couple of weeks ago for Eid.

In recent years, gooning has become slang term for prolonged bouts of m*sturbation, or edging one’s self while watching p*rn. Those who indulge the practice are known as gooners.

Although this likely originated as a gay thing, last year, Harper’s magazine carried a feature on how straight men had approriated gooning – fuelled by boredom, loneliness and an endless supply on online p*rn.

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This year’s Pride post comes on the back of Sunday’s high-profile parade and winning the Premiership. Unsurprisingly, it caught more attention.

Some welcomed the post.

Predictably, other fans were horrified and suggested this was the reason the club lost to PSG last weekend.

Others just thought it funny or suggested it was time to find a new name for the fans.

Other soccer clubs mark Pride Month

Although it’s easy to snigger at Arsenal and its Pride Month gooners, it’s worth remembering that the team has a huge international following. This includes fans in countries where it’s much harder to be gay. For some, this may be the only Pride Month message they see.

Arsenal was just one of several soccer teams to mark Pride Month. Others included Bayern Munich in Germany, Chelsea FC in England, and FC Cincinnati and Seattle Sounders in the US.

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