The football national team of Iceland officially recognized its magic with the traffic cone by picking the roadblock sign as its mascot and displaying it right in front of its players during their airport shooting of customary pose for this year's FIFA World Cup in Russia.

This hilarious link dated back to the 2016 European Championships when the team shot the team photo at the airport and a traffic cone was appearing next to the stairs leading up to the plane. 

Surprisingly, Vikings managed to qualify for the top eight after they defeated the England team by 2-1 with the goalkeeper acting like the cone blocking the strikes.

This previously unnoticeable item shortly became an Internet meme on social media when netizens photoshopped it in line with the Iceland team via video and pics.

The team photo of Iceland with a traffic cone next to the plane‍ during the 2016 European Championships. /Xinhua Photo

This year, the full-fledged team of Vikings sealed a place in Russia with a 2-0 victory against Kosovo, and they painted the mascot cone with their national flag colors. 

It took six years for Icelanders to raise their international football ranking from 131st in 2012 to 22nd this year. Such leap forward is mainly due to its developed infrastructure of stadiums and abundant resource of players. As a result, Iceland becomes the smallest nation ever to qualify for the tournament finals. It is a country where football is its most popular sport with 21,500 registered football players compared to its total population of 350,710 by March 1, 2018, statistics indicate.