Clout-chasing condiment meme, Salt Bae, has officially shot to the top of the world’s most-hated list following several painful moments at the FIFA World Cup that proved the man, born Nusret Gökçe, has no shame at all. Not only did the Turkish chef somehow pop up on the World Cup final pitch to harass Lionel Messi for a selfie – mid-celebration – but he grabbed the World Cup trophy itself and posed with it as if he himself had won. His actions have not only received widespread condemnation and a heightened level of disgust, but it appears Salt Bae is now banned from the US Open Cup Final in 2023.
The decision was announced by the official US Open Cup Twitter account earlier this week, simply stating that Salt Bae is “hereby banned from the 2023 Open Cup final”, which is the equivalent of England’s FA Cup.
Salt Bae is hereby banned from the 2023 @opencup Final
— U.S. Open Cup (@opencup) December 20, 2022
It’s unlikely Salt Bae was going to attend the competition either way. The US Open Cup doesn’t exactly have the same hype around it as the FIFA World Cup, but it’s still a sizable competition that has officially thrown its hat in the ring of anti-Salt Bae sentiment.
This is a sharp indication of Salt Bae being public enemy number one after his rather pathetic display of trying to inexplicably share the limelight with the 2023 World Cup winners.
Salt Bae’s attempt at joining Argentina players and their families on the World Cup final pitch following their win against France quickly went viral after the celebrations.
And the spillover effects evidently keep rolling through, with even famed poker player Dan Bilzerian stepping up to poke fun at the chef, going so far as to share some truly awkward DMs he has received from Gökçe regularly since 2015. Those DMs, mind you, are just selfies of Salt Bae posing with people and meat with no context at all. They don’t even follow each other, nor has Bilzerian ever replied.
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While the world turns on Salt Bae, the man who shot to fame (and profit) via meme has already attempted somewhat of a redemption arc via Instagram. His most recent post is Lionel Messi showing up at the Qatar outpost of Salt Bae’s Nusr-Et steakhouse, and hugging the disgraced meme.
The awkwardly suspicious timing of Salt Bae’s Instagram redemption post feels like a bit of a PR stunt in order to take the heat off, but clearly the damage has already been done given actual sporting events are now banning the guy from even attending.
That’s not the extent of the fallout for Salt Bae either. FIFA has gone on record to state the body will be opening an official investigation into how Salt Bae got onto the World Cup final pitch in the first place.
“Following a review, FIFA has been establishing how individuals gained undue access to the pitch after the closing ceremony at Lusail stadium on 18 December,” said FIFA in a statement as per The Guardian.
“The appropriate internal action will be taken.”
