Cristiano Ronaldo was the first player to snub coco-cola at a Euro 2020 news conference and it has had a ripple effect ever since. Paul Pogba was the second player to make a similar gesture as he put away a bottle of Heineken beer at a news conference after the Germany match.
The latest player to move away two bottles of the carbonated drink is Italian midfielder Manuel Locatelli who was awarded man of the match for his brace against Switzerland in match day 2.
The reason why Ronaldo moved away the two bottles of coco-cola was because he didn’t want to give a false representation of himself as he doesn’t consume cold drinks. Instead, he urged the football fans to drink water by placing the water bottle in front of the mic. Manuel Locatelli did the exact same thing and chuckled after putting away the carbonated drinks.
After Cristiano Ronaldo snubbed the Euro sponsor, it had a negative effect on the brand value of the company as they lost an astounding 4 billion USD in market value.
After Ronaldo’s gesture, Coca-Cola was forced to release a statement saying: ‘everyone is entitled to their drink preferences’ and that people have their ‘tastes and needs’.
Even a Euro 2020 spokesperson addressed the chatter around the topic saying: “Players are offered water, alongside Coca-Cola and Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, on arrival at our press conferences.”
All three players that got on to the act i.e Cristiano Ronaldo, Paul Pogba and Manuel Locatelli, have all had fruitful campaigns so far. While Ronaldo and Pogba were given the man of the match award after their team’s opening matches, Locatelli earned the award after Italy beat Switzerland 3-0 in their group’s second game.
One team who haven’t started the tournament on a positive note is Scotland, who are taking part in a major tournament after 2 decades. John McGinn also hopped on the bandwagon of “meming” coco-cola as he asked the interviewers “Coco-cola?” before his news conference.
Scotland will face England in their 2nd match of the tournament at Wembley on Friday.
