Manuel Locatelli became the latest footballer to remove bottles of aerated drinks placed in front of him during the press conference, thus continuing the weird trend that has enveloped the UEFA Euro 2020.
First, it was Cristiano Ronaldo, then came Paul Pogba, and now Manuel Locatelli has followed in their footsteps. The Italian midfielder scored two excellent goals against Switzerland as his team qualified for the knockout stage. His actions during the post-match conference caught the eye of a football fan, as he too removed bottles of Coca-Cola – a key sponsor of the European Championships.
Locatelli did not offer any explanation for his actions. Coca-Cola did, however, release a statement after the Ronaldo incident claiming that everyone is entitled to their own opinions. It was reported that the Portugal captain’s snub cost the company 4bn in its market value, only for those reports to be proved false later. Whether or not the beverage company takes any further actions at this point remains to be seen, given that they are one of the major sponsors of the competition.
Before Locatelli, Paul Pogba too removed an aerated drink from the shot in his press conference. However, the bottle Manchester United midfielder removed was of the alcoholic beverage Heineken, unaware that the sample placed in front of him was indeed non-alcoholic in nature.
Coca-Cola has become the main talking point this week at the Euros, despite some crucial matches being played on the pitch. Following Ronaldo’s snub and Locatelli’s actions, Scotland’s John McGinn took a cheeky jibe at the beverage during his press conference when he asked the collected media about the absence of the bottles from his bench.
Meanwhile, Russia’s head coach Stanislav Cherchesov went on a completely different tangent than those before him. He opened the bottle and drank from it when quizzed about Ronaldo’s actions while also toasting match-winner Aleksei Miranchuk, whose sole goal helped Russia beat Finland.
