Juventus’ Weston McKennie on preparing for Club World Cup
Weston McKennie discusses the timing of the Club World Cup and how it’s going to be tough to bounce back after a long season.
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Weston McKennie has once again touched a nerved with Italians thanks to his controversial takes on the country’s cuisine.
The man who brought us pizza with ranch dressing and pasta with chicken, pesto and tomatoes (this is apparently offensive) has added a new entry to his canon of bold food opinions.
This one, to be fair, was far more wide-reaching and derogatory than the aforementioned gastronomic preferences.
The Juventus midfielder, along with his teammate for club and country Tim Weah, hit out at the lack of variety in Italian food during an appearance on the “Juventus Talk With Us” podcast.
“You guys don’t have variety, it’s pasta, pizza, fish, steak,” said McKennie.
“You know what the problem is with Italian food? It’s great, it’s good specific food that you do very well, but in America if I go to a burger joint or a steak house, then I go to another place 10 minutes down the street, I’m still eating a burger, but it’s a completely different taste.
“In Italy, I go to this restaurant and get a pesto pasta, I go 10 minutes down the street and order a pesto pasta, it’s the same thing.”
Weah, in perhaps an even more offensive take, added: “I prefer American Italian food.”
These opinions, unsurprisingly, did not go down well with Italians.
The man who served as spokesperson for his country in this case was Emiliano Viviano, the former goalkeeper for Arsenal, Palermo, Fiorentina and Sampdoria among others.
Viviano jokingly (we think) suggested that Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni should refuse McKennie entry back into the country when the Club World Cup ends.
“The United States is the country with the worst food in the world,” Viviano said on TV Play. “They would even deep-fry the soles of their shoes! If I was Meloni, I wouldn’t let him back into Italy.
“How can you say there’s no variety in Italian cuisine? His very definition of ‘variety’ irritated me. McKennie, there are 200 million of you Americans and all you ever eat are hamburgers.
“The truth is, all the food in America was brought there by other nations. I just want to tell McKennie that he has achieved the incredible feat of managing to unite all of Italy against him. It is not about fans anymore, he can be insulted by absolutely everybody.”
The line about deep frying the soles of their shoes? We have to give Viviano credit on that. But his other take is slightly incoherent. If the U.S. has the worst food in the world, but all the food in America was brought by other nations, then doesn’t that make your food the worst?
We’d suggest Weah, McKennie and Viviano sit down for dinner together and hash out their differences. We know a great place.