False! Harry Kane hasn’t commented on Kwaku Bonsam’s ‘curse,’ circulating video AI-generated -…

Following a 2026 World Cup match between England and Ghana, a viral video circulated on TikTok appearing to show England captain Harry Kane discussing a curse allegedly placed on him by a Ghanaian witch doctor named Nana Kwaku Bonsam. The clip, which garnered over half a million views, featured Kane purportedly describing his performance struggles during the goalless draw as a result of the supernatural claim. However, investigations into the England team's official media and post-match interviews confirmed that Kane never addressed the subject.

What happened

The viral content was identified as a sophisticated deepfake created through the synthesis of multiple manipulated elements. Digital forensic analysis using the Google Gemini platform confirmed that the audio was an AI-generated voice clone, citing unnatural speech cadence, robotic text-to-speech inflexion, and pitch fluctuations. The forensic review further noted significant audio-to-visual mismatches, including lip-sync errors and out-of-sync phrasing.

Beyond the audio manipulation, the visual components were also fabricated. The creator repurposed short, 2-to-3-second loops of Harry Kane speaking from an unrelated interview context, repeating them to create the illusion of a continuous monologue. Additional evidence of the manipulation was found in the subject's attire; the video depicted Kane wearing a red off-field jersey that the England national team had not utilized at any point during the tournament. Consequently, fact-checkers concluded that the video was an AI-generated parody created for social media entertainment, misrepresenting the athlete's actual post-match commentary.