Celebrity Chef Salt Bae has found himself on the wrong side of Lionel Messi, as well as many soccer fans, due to his behavior at the end of the FIFA World Cup Final on Sunday.
Argentina beat France on penalties to add the final touches to Messi’s career, and there was plenty to celebrate after the final whistle was blown. However, the Argentinian attacker wasn’t all that happy to see the salt sprinkler, whose real name is Nusret Gökçe.
The Turk managed to find his way to the pitch amid the celebrations and tried to get Messi’s attention by grabbing him more than once. Messi looked angry when he turned around, though he seemed quite happy to take pictures with his teammates and family.
Salt Bae would persist enough to get a photo with the PSG forward, which he shared on Instagram.
He also got photos with Angel di Maria, Leandro Paredes, Nicolas Otamendi, Paulo Dybala, Alexis Mac Allister, and other players.
As if his hounding of Messi wasn’t annoying enough, Salt Bae also got his hands on the World Cup trophy, which is made of 18-carat gold and is understood to be worth $21.5 million. According to FIFA rules, only a “select group of people” can touch the trophy. The select group only includes former World Cup winners and heads of state.
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Fans were having none of it and went hard at the chef in the comments.
“You can’t be so egotistical about what you have done! You disrespected Argentina fans and entire team!” one wrote. “You are not an Argentinian and not a real fan of Argentina! You just want to have Messi and entire team to be your guests to have more attention of media and people to your business! Even a child knows how to react at this time! So cheap! Sorry for being too respectful to you! I am sorry!”
“You annoyed all the players and just wanted to be the center of attention.. that was not the right time and not your stage, calm down bro,” another wrote.
Another user commented: “Shocking how this guy pestered the players … It’s not your moment an they don’t want you there … Go back to cooking your overpriced Asda steaks.”
“The disrespect you have n thinking you even get to touch it is insane,” added another.
“I don like this man anymore,” one user said, while another wrote, “Salt Bae pestering Messi has to be the perfect symbol for all the awful off-field s**t hovering around and poisoning anything good about this World Cup. Dismal little character.”
Twitter was hardly different…
How he was even allowed on the pitch is a mystery in itself. Such dispensation seems a tad above what would be handed to a celebrity chef. Maybe he’s doing something else now?
