Rylan Clark the 'face of football internationally' as Real Madrid joke gets out of hand

Rylan Clark has found himself at the centre of a joke on Twitter as people jested that he received a stunning tribute by Spanish team Real Madrid.

A huge banner was unveiled in the stands as Los Blancos prepared to play Manchester City in the Champions League semi-final.

While the picture was meant to be an homage to famed striker Karim Benzema, fans on Twitter couldn’t help but point out the image’s similarity to former X Factor star Rylan.

Football Joe posted the photo of the banner and tweeted: ‘Lovely tribute to Rylan Clark from the Real Madrid fans.’

Rylan responded, in Spanish, obviously, with the tweet: ‘Gracias.’

However when the post went viral, the 33-year-old It Takes Two Presenter asked: ‘How did I become the face of football internationally?’

BBC’s Match Of The Day joined in on the joke by adding: ‘Kilmarnock and Real Madrid football legend @Rylan.’

Even better was the resurfacing of a clip of Rylan taking part in a shootout on Sky’s Soccer AM alongside his fellow former X Factor contestants in 2012.

In the video, he can be seen wearing a baseball cap, sunglasses and a pair of Uggs as he goes for a goal and dismally misses.

‘Hi my name’s Rylan, I support West Ham but only because I was a junior Hammer once, I don’t know nothing about football so I’m just going to commentate. In my Ugg boots,’ he says into the camera.

Reacting to the clip, Rylan tweeted, all in caps lock: ‘NAH THIS IS TOO MUCH NOW.’

Under a photo of himself preparing to shoot a goal, he added: ‘From humble beginnings on @SoccerAM in 2012 wearing UGG boots to international face of the game. It’s been a good 10 years #lad #cinchedit.’

X Factor fans will recognise Christopher Maloney, Lucy Spraggan and Union J, among others, supporting him on