Barack Obama photo mistakenly placed on World Cup souvenir mug instead of England’s Chris Smalling

With the World Cup being the world’s biggest sporting event, it’s only natural for companies to capitalize with souvenir merchandise. You name it, someone probably has it for sale with a flag of one of the 32 participating countries or picture of a player.

One company went the route of releasing a series of commemorative mugs with a photo of a member of England’s squad on each one. Unfortunately, the mug for defender Chris Smalling did not contain a picture of Chris Smalling. It, instead, featured President Barack Obama.

The mugs were sent to Wholesale Clearance UK, who had the unenviable task of unloading the items.

“They passed this onto to their young, bright eyed and bushy tailed new apprentice. The designs were proofed and signed off by their boss, who had clearly had a heavy night with the lads playing poker and before he’d had his first vat of coffee the following morning, said Wholesale Clearance managing director Karl Baxter via Daily Mail UK”

“They immediately contacted us and 2,000 of the England items were dispatched to our warehouse. We eagerly unpacked them and, indeed it turned out that the Chris Smalling cup had Barack Obama’s head on instead of Chris’s.”

England has already been eliminated from the World Cup with one game remaining, Tuesday against Costa Rica. Hopefully, Smalling, who didn’t appear in either of England’s first two matches, gets some pitch time so he isn’t shut out of both the World Cup and a souvenir set.

Photo: Twitter/DailyMailUK