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Dieunerst Collin: Popeye's 'wide-eyed' meme boy is now state football champ

The boy with the wide-eyed expression, who went viral in the meme culture, has now become a state champion

The child, who was once popular for the wide side-eyed expression in Popeye's meme, is now unrecognizable and is a state football champion. 

Dieunerst Collin gained fame on social media in 2013 after Vine shared a video of him standing at the Popeyes. When the video appeared, Collin was mistaken for another viral boy known as Lil Terio. After Collin gave a hilarious expression after being mistaken for someone else, his video went viral and got over 19 million views. His 'side-eyes' went viral and became a popular face in the meme industry.

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However, the fortunate mistake resulted in Collin gaining worldwide fame and earned him the name 'Popeyes kid' ever since. People laughed at the hilarious interaction between Collin and the person who shot the video. According to Fox 8, before the Vine app was discontinued in 2017, the video got more than 19 million views and the screenshot of the expression of the boy is popularly used even today. 

That is not it, the boy's expression is also converted into a GIF which was often used in commercials. However, the meme was recorded eight years ago and the kid is now a 6 foot 1 grown-up boy. He has recently become a high school football state champion in New Jersey. 

Popularly known as 'The Killer Whale' in his team, Collin is a player of the team of East Orange High School, which was able to win New Jersey state title in triple overtime. The meme-famous boy's post on Twitter announcing his win didn't go unnoticed by his fans. He wrote, "STATE CHAMPS AND REGIONAL CHAMPS IT WAS A HONOR TO LEAD THIS OLINE THIS SEASON. SENIOR SZN HIGHLIGHTS COMING SOON."  Sharing the champion's trophy on Instagram, he wrote, "IMAGINE NOT BEING A STATE CHAMP: I CANT RELATE‼️"

Even though everything seems fine now, there was a time when Collin was bullied by his classmates when his video went viral. In an interview with Sports Illustrated, he said, "When it first happened, I kind of felt sad about it. It was somebody randomly recording me, and I have never been viral before." Further, he added, "I did get to a place where it was like, 'I don't know if I want to go out any more.' But eventually, things became easier." 

Collin said, "People in my class found it very funny, so then I just continued being myself. I got over it once everybody who would randomly come up to me and call me Terio actually met me and learned my actual name and got to know me."