Fans have talked about what Ronald Araujo’s hand movement meant after he was sent off in Barcelona’s loss to Paris Saint-Germain. 

The defender got a straight red card for bowling over Bradley Barcola 29 minutes into the Champions League game.

His dismissal was a slide door moment, and Barcelona fell apart after that. On that night, Barcelona was ahead 1-0 and 4–2 overall, but PSG scored four goals in a row to win 4–1 and 6-4 overall.

Araujo was very angry and yelled at the referee, Istvan Kovacs, along with his teammates. But he had already tripped Barcola as he was going for the goal. A check by VAR confirmed the choice.

People in England were confused by the hand motion he made as he walked off the field. He spread his fingers apart and twisted his hand. 

Luckily, football fans who know about South American society have shown up to explain what he did. 

Someone wrote on Reddit, “It’s the South American hand sign for stealing.” Araujo is from Uruguay. 

“It makes sense in Spain too; if not for the comments here, I would have thought it was true everywhere,” wrote someone else.

Most people who commented agreed that Araujo thought he had been robbed. Fans in Portugal and Italy also said they knew what the move meant. 

Later, as the night got worse, Xavi and a member of Barcelona’s coaching team were both sent off. 

Barcelona has given up a lot of games in Europe. In the 2019 semi-finals, they famously blew a 3-0 lead against Liverpool and lost 4-0 at Anfield.

And PSG will think this is their payback for 2017. The big French team was up 4-0 after the first leg, but they lost 6-1 in Spain, which is one of the biggest comebacks in the history of the tournament.