Fans compare French soccer stars' celebratory FIFA World Cup embrace to The Notebook

French soccer stars Kylian Mbappé and Olivier Giroud appeared to channel a romance classique following their victory over Poland at the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

A final goal made by Giroud led to a 3-0 victory for France in round 16 on Monday, clearing the field for the country to advance to the quarter-finals. Following the win, Mbappé jumped into his teammate's arms to celebrate the triumph — and the photo has since gone viral, with fans comparing it to Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling's famous embrace and kiss in the 2004 romance drama The Notebook.

Based on the Nicholas Sparks book of the same name, The Notebook tells the love story of poor mill worker Noah Calhoun (Gosling) and wealthy girl Allie (McAdams) in 1940s South Carolina. Gosling and McAdams, who dated between 2005 and 2007, famously recreated the kiss at the 2005 MTV Movie Awards after they won the award for best movie kiss.

While it's difficult to envision any other actors in the roles of Noah and Allie, George Clooney previously divulged to EW that he nearly played Gosling's character. "And I was going to do it with Paul Newman. I was playing the flashback, and Paul Newman was the old guy," he said, referring to the older Noah played by the late James Garner.

"Paul and I talked about doing it, and we were sitting there one day, and I was looking at him, and I go, 'I can't do this movie, Paul,'" Clooney remembered. "He was like. 'Why?' I was like, 'Because everybody knows what you look like at 30 years old. You got blue eyes, I got brown eyes. You're too famous at 30 for me to be playing you at 30, it's never gonna work.' And he's like, 'I guess you're right.' We bailed out, and I think 10 years later they made it."

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