Are we facing the most gastronomic Euro in history? In a country sanctifying Currywurst and the pretzel, this hypothesis may seem incongruous. But it’s a fact, there has never been so much talk about food around a major football competition. Whose fault is it ? To certain supporters with inspired courage (we are thinking of you, Albanian friends) and to the ever more viral dimension of social networks. Before a Spain-Italy clash this Thursday (9 p.m.) which could delight us on this subject, let’s take a chronological look at the highlights of the culinary “trash-talk” of this Euro 2024.
- Hungary-Switzerland (1-3): From the second match of the competition on Saturday, Swiss supporters entertained with a sign “Fondue better than goulash”. We didn’t know it yet, but the trend for Euro 2024 stands had just appeared on television.
- Italy-Albania (2-1): A few hours later on a street in Dortmund, it’s already LA masterclass of this Euro. An Albanian supporter appears in front of a group of Nazionale fans and breaks a packet of spaghetti in two before throwing them in the air in front of Italians who are half amused, half stunned by the audacious initiative. The Internet validates just as much, since the scene has been seen more than 10 million times on the networks, with a sublime “italianophobia” as the keyword.
- Austria-France (0-1): Deja vu is out, since Austrian supporters combine at the stadium a sign “Schnitzel better than baguette” (not even in a dream), as well as a breaking a baguette in good standing before that in the city center of Düsseldorf.
Italian cuisine and its “dogmas” as an obvious target
Let’s be clear, the symbolism of butchered pasta is light years away from that of a torn baguette, which Nicolò (37 years old), an Italian supporter of Juventus Turin and living in France since 2018, explains to us. “Cuisine is sacred in Italy, there are dogmas: no cheese on fish, no cream in carbonara, no chicken in pasta and pizza, and certainly no cut spaghetti, he says. Even after six years here, it’s still hard for me to see the French break their spaghetti. So we must recognize that this Albanian attack was really successful, with much more scope than that of the Austrians afterwards. »
These good-natured sequences during the first week of Euro 2024 in Germany contrast with the clashes between Serbs and English in the city center of Gelsenkirchen then between Turks and Georgians at Signal Iduna Park in Dortmund. “It’s refreshing to see that,” appreciates Fabien Bonnel, spokesperson and capo of the Irrésistibles Français, the main group of supporters of the Blues. The spaghetti thing really made me laugh. We feel that something is catching on, but it will quickly become redundant and done in a quest for buzz. Afterwards, it is still better for our opponents to break a stick than the nose of a supporter or that of Mbappé…”
Gouda in the sights of Blues supporters?
We understand that after five days of competition, the overdose is already very close. Especially since two English influencers seized the vein with baguettes of bread also broken against the French in Düsseldorf on Monday, then the same practice with sausages in front of the Germans in Frankfurt on Wednesday. For 5 million cumulative views on social network X alone, go figure. Before joining Leipzig on Friday for France – Netherlands, Fabien Bonnel looks back, beyond the episode with the baton, on his experience surrounding the first match of the Blues in Düsseldorf.
“ We had a good time in the city center, for example exchanging head juggles with Austrian supporters. We even shared the song “Who doesn’t jump is a German” with a hundred of them on the tram, in French and English. The atmosphere was great, we high-fived each other, but you should know that this is almost always the case before our international matches. Afterwards, from time to time, you can come across a drunk asshole… »
What future for this Euro 2024 version Top chef, and will France join the delirium, from its next meeting against the Dutch? “I didn’t set up a think tank for that,” smiles Fabien Bonnel. But if someone wants to bring a “Brie better than gouda” sign into the stadium with chunks of cheese on it, why not, after all. » In the meantime, transalpine supporters will shudder all day at the idea of coming across Spaniards in Gelsenkirchen ready to take a packet of spaghetti out of their bag to commit the crime of lèse-majesté.