Lionel Messi Snubs ‘Salt Bae’ During World Cup Celebrations

The celebrity chef tried to shoehorn his way into Messi’s moment.

The list of people Lionel Messi wanted to interact with after finally winning his first World Cup obviously did not include a gimmicky Turkish chef who got famous on Instagram half a decade ago. 

And yet, right after Argentina defeated France in Sunday’s final, there was Nusret Gökçe—better known as Salt Bae—shoehorning his way into Messi’s moment. A video of the on-field celebration shows Gökçe approaching Messi and grabbing his arm in an attempt to get his attention. Messi repeatedly ignores him, although Gökçe did eventually post a photo where he got Messi to look in the general direction of a camera. 

Even Messi knows salt bae is a hack pic.twitter.com/c457o1GnHt

— Z Bo (@zekedabolina) December 18, 2022

(A similar scene played out with Kylian Mbappé and French president Emmanuel Macron.)

After a January 2017 viral video in which Gökçe seductively sprinkled salt down his forearm onto a steak, he parlayed his fame into opening a series of restaurants that, despite middling reviews, are apparently quite lucrative. Lucrative enough for Gökçe to afford a ticket to the World Cup final in Qatar. 

Gökçe also finds himself in hot water after running afoul of FIFA’s rules for the iconic World Cup trophy. The rules state that only members of the winning team, FIFA officials and world leaders are allowed to touch the solid gold trophy. And yet, Gökçe also posted a photo where he is seen cradling the trophy. 

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A post shared by Nusr_et#Saltbae (@nusr_et)

Gökçe isn’t the only person to cause a stir by handling the cup when they shouldn’t have. After Germany won the 2014 tournament, Rihanna was criticized for holding the trophy at an after-party. At least she waited until the trophy was off the field.