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Eat’em up: Star footballers who have slurpy dishes named after them

by Swapnil Bhopatkar
written by Swapnil Bhopatkar
Footballers and Dishes
Footballers and Dishes

The madness over football can never be defined really, as the fans devise some the best yet unique ways to grab the attention of the player they idolize. One such fabrication is naming a food dish after the player and this tradition has been lodging on since years.

Footballers and their association with the hospitality industry is a known thing as current and former players like Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez, Cristiano Ronaldo and Rio Ferdinand own a fancy eatery. But very little is known about the fact that there are some restaurants across the globe, which have these sensations in their menu; of course a dish. That being said, let’s have a look at those footballers who are lucky enough to have this esteem.

Lucas Vasquez:

Like mentioned before, this tradition of naming a dish after a footballer has been going through ages, and Real Madrid’s 27-year-old winger Lucas Vasquez is the latest addition to it. Married to Macarena Rodriguez – who belongs to Melilla – Lucas has a pizza named after him in a local pizzeria in the centre of the town.

Marca quotes that the dish is designed by the player himself after he was invited by the owner of Anthony’s Pizzeria. And the 27-year-old chose ingredients like chicken, tuna, pepperoni and onion for the dish.

Cristiano Ronaldo, Sergio Ramos and Jose Mourinho:

Anthony’s Pizzeria has more than 300 dishes in its menu and the list, besides Vasquez, boasts of the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Sergio Ramos and even manager Jose Mourinho. Real Madrid captain Sergio Ramos’ pizza has Tomato, mozzarella, oregano, pepperoni, hard boiled egg and black olives as the main ingredients and costs €8.30. The Jose Mourinho pizza, on the other hand, is the most expensive of all which costs as much as €10.90 and has ingredients like Tomato, mozzarella, oregano, artichokes, peppers, fried onions, prawns, tuna, salmon.

Being a global superstar, former Real Madrid and now Juventus forward Cristiano Ronaldo has earned this prize not once, but twice. Besides having a pizza at Anthony, the Portugal captain was recently honoured by having an ice cream cup after his name in the village of Vinovo, just outside Turin.

Kalidou Koulibaly:

Much like aforementioned stars, Napoli centre-back Kalidou Koulibaly too have a pizza after his name at a restaurant in Naples. The main ingredients of the dish are olive paste, walnuts, parmesan and buffalo mozzarella. As per the restaurant, the dish’s ingredients resembles the centre-backs’ quality. “Olive patè (an ingredient that refers to the colour of the skin of the “ebony giant”), provola di Agerola (which compared to fior di latte or buffalo mozzarella , has a stronger taste, to remember the strength of the mighty central blue), crumbled walnuts and flakes of Parmigiano Reggian or (a reference to the “crunchiness”).

Pep Guardiola:

Pep Guardiola departure from Barcelona struck the footballing world, but as soon as he took the Bayern Munich job, he was honoured by McDonald’s with a new sandwich in their Munich and Bavarian branches, with the name, ‘Hot Pep Guardinator’.

The dish had basic veggies in between brown bread followed by cheese and chicken schnitzel.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic:

It was back in 2013 when a local French restaurant, Doddy’s Cafe decided to honour their then star Zlatan Ibrahimovic by naming a massive 600g burger, “Le Zlatan”.  The burger comprises of mince beef with onions, bacon and three types of cheese including cheddar, Emmental and Auvergne blue. The presence of Auvergne blue in the burger has a purpose, with Jean-Philippe Grandin – the manager of the cafe – describing, “It’s a cheese with taste and character, just like Ibrahimovic.”

Andrea Pirlo:

Italian maestro Andrea Pirlo played for MLS side New York City from 2015-2017 and during the course, had the privilege to see Howler Magazine and sandwich shop No. 7 Sub teaming up to name a sandwich after him. And the sandwich was a classic Medittarean mixture, comprising of salami, fried zucchini, mozzarella and pickled blueberries.

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