A man in the stands at Toronto Stadium took something out of his pocket and threw it straight at the lens of the camera that was filming him. The flash of white powder lasted barely a second, but the images spread across Latin America before the match was over.
Ghana beat Panama 1-0 with a goal by Yirenki in the 94th minute, in both teams’ first match in Group L of the 2026 World Cup. The detail did not go unnoticed: the powder appeared on camera minutes before the only goal of the match, and on social media it did not take long for people to connect the two events. Some identified the substance as baby powder. Others went straight to talking about rituals and dark forces. The debate remains open.
Panama came into the clash after an eight-year wait since its historic debut in Russia 2018 and qualified unbeaten in the Concacaf qualifiers. Ghana, for its part, played the match without Mohamed Kudus or Thomas Partey, two of its main stars. Even so, a goal in the final minute of stoppage time was enough to extinguish Panamanian hopes. Baby powder, chance, or something the camera should not have captured?