Christian Pulisic has received death threats over a social media video involving a goliath grouper fish, the United States and Chelsea star’s father has revealed.
Pulisic hit the headlines last week after seeing one of his Instagram uploads go viral while on holiday in Florida.
The 22-year-old filmed a stunt on a boat above an endangered fish, and has subsequently been criticized by conservationists and animal rights groups.
What happened?
In the video in question, Pulisic was seen juggling a ball over a goliath grouper — a giant saltwater fish most commonly found in waters off the eastern coast of the Americas.
The Chelsea winger, who helped the Blues win the Champions League in 2020-21, ultimately lost control of the ball and fell onto the fish, which visibly struggled under his weight before he was pulled back into the boat.
The self-funded, volunteer pressure group known as the Blue Planet Society, committed to ending the overexploitation of the world’s ocean, reposted the video of Pulisic on Twitter with the caption: “Abusing a threatened goliath grouper for a social media video is a new low.”
Pulisic’s father defends USMNT international
Mark Pulisic has now come out to defend the USMNT international amid the social media backlash, insisting he never had any intention of hurting the goliath grouper while slamming the online trolls that have made threats against his life.
The Chelsea attacker’s father told Alex Goldberg’s YouTube channel The Byline: “He is off Twitter during the season, but he knows what’s going on and the harshness of it after having a bad game. He doesn’t look at it a lot.
“What hurts him more is the cancel culture. If he wants to post something on the internet, and idiots are hiding behind computers. People are just waiting to hate because of their jealousy. That bothers him a lot more.
“Whether it is regarding guns or regarding going fishing and having a hook in a fish’s mouth. He didn’t even realise it but he is just trying to have a good time.
“It’s the most ridiculous thing. Christian is such an animal lover. He has horses, he doesn’t want to see animals hurt. Unfortunately, he has got death threats regarding it and it’s got to the point where people are saying they want him in jail.
“People need to not wait for someone with notoriety to do something wrong. It is pretty idiotic. If you want to say he has had a sh***y game, then go for it.
“But if you don’t know Christian as a person and what happened on the boat? Then shut your mouth.”