Drake effect: the rap star's 'curse' on Manchester United, Arsenal and PSG results

Footballers have been told to take a picture with him at their peril

Sergio Aguero poses with Drake. Courtesy Instagram

Footballers and their managers are never short of an excuse when it comes to losing matches - and it's usually the referee that gets the blame.

But there's a new excuse in town - and this time it involves Canadian music star Drake.

Over the past few weeks he has been posing for pictures with a host of football's biggest names, only for their team to then lose their next match.

And it has now reached the stage where Drake has been accused of being a curse, with Italian club Roma joking on Twitter that their players are banned from photos with him.

What's Drake doing at all these football matches?

He's been in Europe on what he's called his Assassination Vacation tour, which has taken in a number of major cities such as London, Manchester and Paris.

He's clearly Instagram gold for footballers looking to show off who they know.

Aguero, Lukaku, who else has been posing with him?

Manchester United's Romelu Lukaku uploaded this picture on March 13, a few days before his side were dumped out of the FA Cup by Wolverhampton Wanderers. Teammate Paul Pogba was also at the Drake gig.

Manchester City's Sergio Aguero posed with Drake on March 11 and a few weeks later missed a penalty as City were beaten in the first leg of their Uefa Champions League quarter-final by Tottenham Hostpur.

Then there was Arsenal's Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was at the O2 Arena in London on April 3, and was then on the losing side when Everton beat The Gunners 1-0 on April 7.

Borussia Dortmund's Jadon Sancho, who labelled the rap star "the Goat" in his Instagram post, could also be added to the list.

Their meeting was on March 11 and although they recorded two victories thereafter, they were then crushed 5-0 by title rivals Bayern Munich on April 6.

Does it end there?

No, it happened once again at the weekend, this time with Paris Saint-Germain's Layvin Kurzawa. The French league leaders were thumped 5-1 by Lille on Sunday - the day after Kurzawa posted this image...

The situation was taken a step further by Manchester United ahead of their Champions League quarter-final second last night when the club tweeted out an image of Drake wearing a Barca shirt in an effort to give them a paranormal edge, if not a psychological one.

It didn't work - United lost 3-0.

Should Ajax beware?

The Dutch side are taking the Champions League by storm, knocking Cristiano Ronaldo's Juventus out of the competition last night, but fortunately for them Drake's show at Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam on April 23 was cancelled and the gigs on April 25 and 26 were moved to April 15 and 16 - when the squad were in Turin.