- Players and coaches at
Euro 2020 are jokingly mockingCristiano Ronaldo 's snub of Coca-Cola. - The Portuguese forward removed two bottles of the drink from his table at a press conference Monday.
- Italy's Manuel Locatelli, Scotland's John McGinn, and Russia's Stanislav Cherchesov have made jokes.
Players and coaches at Euro 2020 are openly joking about Cristiano Ronaldo's highly publicized rejection of Coca-Cola.
The Portuguese forward went viral after he removed two bottles of the drink from his table at a press conference on Monday.
"Coca-Cola, ugh," he said in apparent disgust at the drink after he had highlighted he would instead be drinking water. The move coincided with Coca-Cola losing $4 billion in market value.
While some have praised Ronaldo for rejecting the sugary drink, some involved in the Euros have decided to joke about the incident.
On Tuesday, Russia manager Stanislav Cherchesov seemingly mocked Ronaldo in a press conference, before Italy's Manuel Locatelli followed suit Wednesday evening.
As one of the main sponsors of Euro 2020, Coca-Cola is being placed in front of players and managers at press conferences before and after matches.
While most of the drinks seem to go untouched, Cherchesov decided to crack open a bottle of Coke Zero in front of the press and proceed to drink it before Russia's 1-0 victory over Finland.
According to the RT journalist Liam Tyler, Russia defender Georgi Dzhikiya, who was sitting next to Cherchesov, said to his boss: "Didn't you see what Cristiano did? He got rid of it."
Cherchesov then shrugged his shoulders and carried on drinking, causing Dzhikiya to laugh.
On Wednesday evening, after Italy had beaten Switzerland, 3-0, Locatelli, who scored two of his country's goals, then moved two bottles of Coca-Cola a few inches from where they were initially placed, jokingly imitating Ronaldo's actions.
"Acqua" - which is Italian for "water" - the midfielder then said, laughing.
-SkySports News (@SkySportsNews) June 17, 2021
On Thursday morning, the jokes at Ronaldo's expense continued courtesy of Scotland's John McGinn.
As the midfielder sat down at a Scotland press conference, he was faced with an empty table. "Any coke?" - he asked, before laughing and drinking from a bottle of water.
-Soccer AM (@SoccerAM) June 17, 2021
Ronaldo, who scored twice in Portugal's 3-0 win over Hungary on Tuesday, has previously spoken of his dislike for Coca-Cola and other unhealthy snacks and drinks.
Speaking at Dubai's Globe Soccer Awards in 2020, the Juventus star said it irritated him that his son Cristiano Jr. liked to drink the beverage.
"I'm hard with him sometimes because he drinks Coca-Cola and Fanta sometimes, and I'm pissed with him," he said.
"I fight with him when he eats chips and fries and everything. He knows I don't like it. Even my small kids, when they eat chocolate they always look to me, and, you know, we have to be strong."
After he snubbed the drink on Monday, however, an old Coca-Cola ad he starred in in 2006 resurfaced online, leading some on social media to accuse him of hypocrisy.