How Weston McKennie and Tim Weah wound up a nation: ‘Are you going to say Italian food is trash?'

New York Times

2 days ago

A football career is short and players often muse over what they might do afterwards. For Weston McKennie and Tim Weah, perhaps scratch diplomacy off the list… or being food critics.
The pair, who have collectively spent seven years at Italian club Juventus, have committed the ultimate faux-pas for many in their adopted home. They criticised the food.
Advertisement
Speaking on an episode of the Turin club's Talk with Us podcast, the USMNT internationals tentatively discussed Italian cuisine before, possibly with a side of tongue-in-cheek, accusing it of 'lacking variety'.
At least Weah seemed to acknowledge it was a bad idea before they even got started.
'I was going to say something crazy but I don't feel like having that debate right now, so please,' said the New Yorker, before being urged on by McKennie, who has previous for not being afraid to speak his mind.
'Nah, I don't wanna get bashed,' insisted the 25-year-old son of Milan legend George Weah (a man who could offer advice on international politics, as he is also the former president of Liberia).
But McKennie, 26, who grew up in Little Elm, Texas, seemed to be in the mood for mischief. 'Are you going to say Italian food is trash? Needs some work?' he prompted.
Weah continued to demur, while indicating he did have something to get off his chest, until his team-mate went ahead and spat it out.
'Y'all don't have much variety, I'll give you that,' said McKennie. 'Pasta, pizza, fish, steak… and if you go anywhere it's all… You know what the problem is with Italian food? It's great. It's good food.
'You guys have good specific things that you do very well. But in America, the thing is, if I go to a burger joint or steak house, and then I go to one that's like 10 minutes down the street, I'm still eating a burger but it's a completely different taste.
'In Italy, if I go here to this restaurant and get a pesto pasta, and then go 10 minutes down the street and order a pesto pasta, it's going to be the same thing. You guys don't have variety so that's why I say American food is…'
Then Weah nips in with, 'Hot take,' before claiming he prefers American-Italian dishes, and the pair reminisce about a delicious chicken parmesan Weah once enjoyed at a restaurant in Atlanta, Georgia.
There was just time for one last serving of controversy with, again, perhaps a splash of deliberate devilment.
'But I mean, Americans do everything better so…' said Weah.
'That's true,' added McKennie.
The pair were speaking from the U.S. where Juventus are participating in the Club World Cup — they play Manchester City in their final group game tonight.
Advertisement
It did not take long for offended Italians to respond. Former Italy and Fiorentina goalkeeper Emiliano Viviano served up a withering (if also light-hearted) response.
'The United States is the country with the worst food in the world,' he told TV Play. 'They would even deep-fry the soles of their shoes. If I was (Italian Prime Minister Giorgia) 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 200million 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.'
McKennie, whose personal chef is Italian, has possibly contradicted himself in the past, when asked by Juventus' social media team for his favourite food in 2023. While many team-mates replied it was pasta or pizza, he also opted for a local dish — pasta with pesto, tomato and chicken.
In December this year, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) will decide whether to grant Italian food its prestigious Heritage Site status.
It was made a candidate in 2023, around the same time as a row prompted by Italian food history professor Alberto Grandi, who told the Financial Times that Italians' attitude to food comes from insecurity.
'When a community finds itself deprived of its sense of identity, because of whatever historical shock or fracture with its past, it invents traditions to act as founding myths,' he said. 'Italian cuisine really is more American than it is Italian.'