How TikTok star Conna Chahal tapped into the \u2018hopecore\u2019 trend and reminded his 184,000 followers that anything is possible in sport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2022, Conna Chahal was just a lad from Coventry working a 9-5. He started posting sports content on TikTok to test out the waters, and a common theme was found. People are obsessed with the underdog. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI started in 2022. My videos did alright, so I just carried on posting. When a new underdog story pops up that people have never heard before, they tend to stay,\u201d Conna says. \u201cWhen they hear the story, they think, wow, how have I never heard about that? Then they look it up and see that it\u2019s real.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Hopecore,\u2019 a trend where users post inspiring, heartfelt and wholesome videos of athletes, animals and babies. It has become an internet sensation, and Conna has played up to this, building a following on unheard or forgotten \u2018miracles\u2019 about the little guy conquering the world, which tend to gain huge traction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMe personally, I love finding out about stories I knew nothing about,\u201d says Conna. \u201cI think audiences are similar. There\u2019s a demand for it because people like knowing what they don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen you bring emotional stories back to life, those videos do really well. People love it because that team or athlete had no right to achieve what they did.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One video that did particularly well, which gained almost one million views and Conna himself sees as the best underdog tale of all time, is the beautiful yet heartbreaking story of the 1993 Zambian national team<\/a>, who were at the time widely regarded as the best African team of all time and were clear favourites to win the upcoming African Cup of Nations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This wasn\u2019t to be, though, as a plane with the team onboard crashed near Libreville, Gabon, killing everyone onboard. It took Zambia until 2012 to win their first African Cup of Nations, but when they eventually did, it was won only a few hundred metres away from where the plane crashed back in 1993. The 2012 team dedicating their victory to those who tragically passed away almost 30 years prior. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFor Zambia, I didn\u2019t want that great team who sadly passed away in the plane crash to be forgotten,\u201d says Conna. \u201cThey deserved to be remembered. It\u2019s making sure stories and people are remembered. I don\u2019t like it when a sad story is also a forgotten story. If a tragic story is remembered, then at least those people can live on their legacies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAnd then in 2012, the fact they won it not too far away from where the plane crashed. It\u2019s unbelievable. Nobody thought they were going to win it, and then the final was in Libreville, where the plane went down, and they won it there. That has to be higher powers. Ivory Coast had all these Premier League players, and Zambia had none, but they beat them in the final. How does this happen?<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI had loads of Zambians thanking me for sharing their story with the rest of the world. People in Zambia would never forget about it, but people across the world also shouldn\u2019t forget about that team.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n