Deportivo Riestra, a team in the top flight of Argentinian football, has been slammed for fielding an influencer in their starting XI as part of a marketing stunt.
Riestra picked Ivan Buhajeruk, better known as Spreen, in their team to play Velez Sarsfield on Monday in a Liga Profesional Argentina match.
The 24-year-old lasted just 50 seconds on the pitch and did not touch the ball before being subbed off for Gustavo Fernandez.
The Spreen selection was all part of a marketing stunt from Victor Stinfale, who owns both the club and its main sponsor, energy drink Speed Unlimited.
The popular streamer boasts 5.4m followers on Instagram and 5.9m on X, while the club itself have just 103,000 and 15,800 on those platforms respectively, Spreen also has over 8m subscribers on YouTube.
However, the gimic was not appreciated by players in Argentina, with Velez striker Braian Romero hitting out at the ‘lack of respect’ involved.
“What happened today was a lack of respect for football, it is a wrong message to society, to kids who try hard,’ said Romero after scoring in the 1-1 draw.
‘Football is not that, it is trying and failing and trying again.’
Argentina legend, and former Manchester United and Chelsea midfielder, Juan Sebastian Veron wrote on Instagram: ‘A total lack of respect for football and footballers.’
The club was obviously happy with the results of the stunt, reposting a string of stats from journalist Germán García Grova.
These stats on Spreen’s debut included 159m Twitter impressions, 42m on Instagram, 55m on TikTok and 1m views on YouTube.
Riestra’s manager, Cristian Fabbiani, said he had told Velez boss Gustavo Quinteros about the situation before the match.
‘I told him that he was going to play due to a contract issue, that the club depends a lot on publicity,’ said Fabbiani.