If you're the type who's revolted and outraged by pineapple pizza, well... you might want to sit this one out. Because it turns out Argentina's traditional pizza is on a whole other level.
This cultural exchange has many people on the internet horrified after Argentine soccer legend and current MLS player for Inter Miami Lionel Messi shared a photo of a traditional Argentine pizza to his Instagram story.
Suffice to say, many of Messi's followers won't be jetting down to Buenos Aires for a couple slices any time soon.
This might be the worst pizza I have ever seen in my life— Effy \u2018Primetime\u2019 Perry \ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\u26a7\ufe0f\ud83e\udd3e\ud83c\udffc\u200d\u2640\ufe0f (she/her) (@Effy \u2018Primetime\u2019 Perry \ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\u26a7\ufe0f\ud83e\udd3e\ud83c\udffc\u200d\u2640\ufe0f (she/her)) 1694867953
The pizza Messi posted is admittedly... different. On a super-thin crust, it doesn't appear to have very much cheese, but what it does have is seemingly thousands of sliced tomatoes, topped with white onions and green olives and some seasoning.
God bless the Argentines if this is how they like to do things and we've no desire to yuck anyone's yum, but... well, come on!
But as several pointed out on X, aka Twitter, Messi's pie is indeed a traditional way of doing pizza in Argentina.
@FCBAlbiceleste common type of Argentine pizza. Let the man enjoy his Napolitana bro— \ud83d\udd31 (@\ud83d\udd31) 1694841446
There are apparently several variations, of which Messi's is only one, but the most traditional type of Argentine pizza is "fugazza," which is made on a focaccia-like dough with parmesan cheese, caramelized onions and slices of red pepper.
And several people familiar with Argentine pizza took to Twitter in response to defend Messi's choice, even if they did have to admit it's not quite as good as the pizza we're used to here in the US, mainly because all those tomato slices are meant to be a substitute for the sauce.
this is just a typical argentinean pizza tho ...they are actually good but just not in the same way that US pizza is good (mostly due to lack of pizza sauce)— chris (@chris) 1694875697
But of course when we Americans go over to Italy, it's not like we get Domino's-style pizza either. So maybe we should all just chalk this up to a lovely cultural exchange, right?
Maybe, but people on Twitter were definitely not in that kind of mood. There were a lot of hurt feelings over Messi's pizza!
Forget pineapple on pizza, we need to unite against this crap— Ujjwal Mohindra (@Ujjwal Mohindra) 1694867138
I\u2019m crying thousands of people paid hundreds of dollars to see Messi play and he\u2019s eating a pizza at home in Miami \ud83d\ude2d\ud83d\ude2d— R \uea00 (@R \uea00) 1694833911
This pizza makes me want to commit crimes— jo\ud83c\uddf8\ud83c\uddfb (@jo\ud83c\uddf8\ud83c\uddfb) 1694879893
I spent $750 to watch him but bro stayed home and eating the ugliest pizza I have ever seen. He cooked me this weekend for sure, but I will recover.\ud83d\ude2d— FCB Albiceleste (@FCB Albiceleste) 1694840962
If there's a silver lining, it's that Messi's post seems to have blown up Banchero pizza in Miami.
People lining up in front of Banchero Miami restaurant after Messi posted their pizza on Instagram. Messi means good business.\ud83e\udd2f— FCB Albiceleste (@FCB Albiceleste) 1694985437
But even that wasn't enough to inspire forgiveness.
I have Finally found something Messi isn't good at, it is eating Pizza— Ademiju (@Ademiju) 1694902420
At least he's really, really good at soccer, right?
@jaketapoer/Bluesky
@BillAckman/Twitter