President Barack Obama is a huge sports fan and a pretty good basketball player—but he does not play defender for England's national soccer team.
That is the mistake one souvenir company recently made when it put the president's face on a commemorative mug where England player Chris Smalling's face should have appeared, the New York Daily News reports.
The company created some 2,000 of the mementos before it realized what it had done.
"The Dorset company in question (whose blushes we shall protect for now … maybe!) was given the seemingly easy job of sourcing royalty-free pictures of each England squad player to use on the England mugs—along with other accompanying items such as England coasters, England mouse mats etc.," Karl Baxter, a supervisor at Wholesale Clearance who is now tasked with trying to unload the president's mug on a mug in an England jersey, told the Daily News.
"They passed this onto 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," Baxter joked.
"They immediately contacted us and 2,000 of the England items was 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'."
Baxter and Wholesale Clearance see the mistake as a profitable opportunity and are now trying to sell the mugs for £2,000 ($3,401).
"This is your chance to snatch up a piece of World Cup history," Baxter told the Daily News. "Who would ever believe that Barack Obama ever played for England? Hang on to this England cup and you'll have a great story to tell your grandkids."
Read more at the New York Daily News.