There is no hope meme originates from the pre-match press conference held on March 13, 2018, for the second leg of the 2017–18 UEFA Champions League knockout game between Bayern Munich and Beşiktaş. The press conference was attended by then manager Jupp Heynckes and player Thomas Müller. Now leading up to this, let’s learn about the background. Besiktas JK was having one of the best performances by a Turkish club in the Elite competition after winning the group stage for the first time in the modern era. Unfortunately, they were pitted against one of the heavyweights of Europe Bayern Munich in the round of 16.
On 15th February 2018, it was reported that Hamit Altıntop, a former Turkish football player said that Besiktas will need a “miracle” to progress to the Champions League quarter-finals at Bayern Munich’s expense. Bayern thrashed the Turkish club 5-0 in Allianz Arena, a match in which the latter went down to 10 men within 17 minutes on the clock.
During the press conference, when asked about his perspectives on this match after Bayern Munich’s 5-0 win by a journalist, Thomas Muller said (in English translation), “We do it like you. If you collect information and produce statistics, we prepare accordingly. We are evaluating the match as if it will start 0-0. I’ve said this in the last few days. We do not want to make our opponent hopeful mistakes when the match starts. But it would be unrealistic to say that we will score many goals, as in the first match.” The later part of the answer of wrongly interpreted by some sections of the fans and they quoted Thomas Muller saying, “We want to show them from the very start that there is no hope, and no hope for a miracle.”
On March 14th, 2018, Twitter user @ZIatanFacts tweeted the press conference photo with the caption “When Germans trash talk.” On Feb 26, 2020, Twitter user @DemoRileyUg tweeted the same meme but in context for a different team than Beşiktaş i.e., Chelsea. In recent years, the meme has been extensively used for the ties between FC Bayern and FC Barcelona after the trashing 8-2 handed to the club from Barcelona.
The popular use of the there is no hope meme is to mock the rival fans when hoping for a miracle in a game of football.
