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How Much Is Too Much For A Meal? Don’t Ask Franck Ribery

How much is too much for a meal? 

It’s a question making the rounds recently after Kiyoshi Kimura dropped $3 million on a giant Bluefin tuna — about $4,900 per pound.

And it’s a question many soccer fans are wondering after the Franck Ribery Salt Bae Twitter tirade on Saturday. 

Everyone needs to eat — it’s a fact of life. Some prefer to spend lavishly on fine dining; others prefer to frequent the McDonald’s value menu and regularly peruse the day-old bakery discounts. 

Franck Ribery decided to become the latest footballer to spend a sizable chunk of his even more sizable paycheck on the famed Salt Bae, otherwise know as Nusret Gökçe, a Turkish butcher.

Personally, I don’t really get the whole Salt Bae thing, but I’m not going to begrudge someone for their tastes — it’s not like he’s hurting anyone (except those cows). 

Ribery, for one, enjoyed ringing in the new year with Salt Bae and a $1,250 gold-plated steak.

But some people, including French journalist Audrey Pulvar, took exception to a rich person spending that much money on a single meal instead of donating to charity.

Pulvar has a point — there are countless charities that could do a lot of good with $1,250. But Ribery wasn’t hearing it. 

On Saturday, Ribery took to Twitter to defend his position with some strong language from the Frenchman.

Roughly translated, Ribery said:

“Let's set things straight in 2019. Let's start with the envious, the angry, the people that have been spawned from a broken condom. Fuck your mothers, your grandmothers and even your family tree. I owe you nothing, my success is thanks to god, myself and my family and friends who believed in me. The others were always merely stones in my shoes.

“Secondly, to the pseudo-journalists that always criticized me and my actions (last example, the price of my food!). When I give [to charity] (because I've been taught to always give when I receive a lot) why no big national media is talking about it?

“You would rather talk about the vacation that I spent with my family, you watch my every move, what I eat and so on... You’re always here for this kind of futility.”

Yikes.

Finally, Ribery called out Pulvar for responding to a buying a pair of $3,400 glasses by saying “I do what I want with my money.”

Ribery has a point — he does give to charity, but is only criticized for spending money on himself. And no one is required by law to give to charity (unless you include taxes).

It’s a problem many professional athletes encounter if they want to spend a little of their insane amounts of money on excessive things, be it  ridiculous cars, outlandish tips or a four-figure steak, regardless of how much they give to charity. It’s not an issue we can solve anytime soon, even over steak.

So how much is too much to spend on a meal? According to Ribery, not $1,250. 

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