Argentine streamer Spreen was started this Monday, November 11 by Deportivo Riestra during a first division football match against Vélez. He was replaced after a minute.
As if Inoxtag or AmineMaTue were started by Le Havre for a Ligue 1 match. In Argentina, this Monday, November 11, Deportivo Riestra started their first division match against Vélez Sarsfield (1-1) with a certain Iván Buhajeruk in attack . Wearing the number 47 on his jersey, this 24-year-old striker is better known under the nickname “Spreen” as a streamer with 7.75 million subscribers on Youtube, 9.6 million on Twitch and 540,000 on Kick where he is the most active. But the farce – or rather commercial operation – was cut short: the young man was replaced after just 59 seconds, without even being able to touch the ball.
Spreen was only allowed 10 seconds of effective playing time due to a foul which preceded his replacement by Gustavo Martín Fernández, an experienced 34-year-old center forward. “The kid had a lot of respect in training. We laughed a lot. We found out yesterday that he was going to start. He was supposed to play in the second half, but they changed and he started,” commented the captain Milton Céliz.
“A total lack of respect”
Spreen, who loves football to the point of sponsoring Club Atlético Colón de Santa Fe (Argentina's second division), is not a professional footballer. He became a network star mainly playing Minecraft during the Covid-19 pandemic.
So how did he find himself starting in an official match of a major championship? It seems that the team's jersey sponsor, the energy drink brand Speed, has been preparing its move for some time with this club used to small communication stunts. According to Argentinian media TyC Sports, Spreen was officially registered last February by Deportivo Riestra, who were promoted at the start of the year. But his first training took place on November 5.
Widely followed by the media, this unusual story divides. On the one hand, many Internet users were amused and did not fail to laugh at the time of the replacement. But on the other, voices expressed their annoyance. The illustrious former international midfielder Juan Sebastián Verón, now president of Estudiantes La Plata, is one of these detractors.
“A total lack of respect for football and footballers,” he wrote in an Instagram story.
Braian Romero, the striker who scored Vélez's only goal in this match, also denounced this initiative, as reported by Olé: “The message is aimed at the children on the other side. Today, television showed them a shortcut that is not a shortcut Today, it is a lack of respect for football. It is a bad message that we are giving to society and to children, to those who play their part. better and who can't do it. (…) We are sending the wrong signal to children who come from the bottom of the ladder.”
Open investigation
Criticisms that go over Spreen. “Undefeated,” he joked on X. “It’s the second time it’s lasted less than a minute for a first,” https://twitter.com/SpreenDMC/status/1856083097680523726.
But this commotion could well cost Deportivo Riestra dearly. https://twitter.com/TNTSportsAR/status/1856185212255739940an investigation was opened by the ethics commission.
