New Dan Brown book explains Pat Lampard tribute

We loved how the short chapters and pointless cliff hangers of Angels and Demons and The Da Vinci Code made us feel super intelligent, but The Spoiler has not yet had the pleasure of taking in Dan Brown’s latest epic The Lost Symbol (£18.99 for an airport blockbuster? We don’t care how hard the hard back is, that’s a rip-off!).

Our friends at The Mirror football desk, however, have furiously pawed through it, and found an interesting football-related passage in the process. When symbologist protagonist Robert Langdon discovers a severed hand with the index finger pointing upwards, he remarks:

“This pointing-hand gesture - with its index finger and thumb extended upward - is a well-known symbol of the Ancient Mysteries, and it appears all over the world in ancient art. This same gesture appears in three of Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous encoded masterpieces - The Last Supper, Adoration of the Magi, and Saint John the Baptist. It’s a symbol of man’s mystical connection to God.”

“I’ve never seen it before,” Sato said. Then watch ESPN, Langdon thought, always amused to see professional athletes point skyward in gratitude to God after a touchdown or home run. He wondered how many knew they were continuing a pre-Christian mystical tradition of acknowledging the mystical power above, which, for one brief moment, had transformed them into a God capable of miraculous feats.”

So there you have it. When he points to the sky, Frank Lampard isn’t paying tribute to his mother who tragically died of pneumonia last year, he’s actually performing an ancient ritual of briefly transforming into a God.

And who said Dan Brown books were rubbish, eh?