‘Salt Bae’, a popular chef who once fed many soccer players meat in Dubai, has not had his best moment since Argentina won the World Cup trophy in Qatar six months ago. The Turk earned bad press when, with the Albiceleste players celebrating the title on the pitch, he jumped to pose next to them taking all kinds of photos, as if it were with him.
Now Nusret Gökce, the chef’s real name, speaks for the first time about all that controversy in an interview in ‘The Times’. “The fact that I ended up on the pitch was due to a combination of my love for Argentina and the joy that they won gold. I love Argentina. I have lived there and cheered for them in the final. Several of the players visited our restaurant as well that I didn’t feel like an outsider. It was a special moment,” he says.
Of the subsequent hate storm, he says: “I was never looking to be the center of attention or do any kind of publicity for myself. There were like 1,000 people in midfield so it wasn’t just me, but the focus was on me. Two billion watched the World Cup final and how many talked about me afterwards? Five billion. I can’t go back, but I’ll never do it again,” he says.
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