Noni Madueke was hugely popular among Chelsea fans after his starring role in Sunday’s 6-2 win over Wolves.
For Wolves fans, however, Madueke was arch-enemy number 1, and not just because of his 14th-minute hat-trick in the second half.
Madueke was booed and jeered from the first minute by the home crowd at Molineux.
Why? It’s all because of an Instagram post that Madueke, apparently accidentally, made public the night before the match.
Madueke quickly uploaded – and deleted – a post to his Instagram story. The post had tagged the city of Wolverhampton and the message read: ‘Everything about this place is s***’.
Noni Madueke poses with the match ball after his hat-trick for Chelsea at Wolves
Madueke scored in the 49th, 58th and 63rd minutes of Sunday afternoon’s 6-2 victory
On the eve of Sunday’s match, Madueke called Wolverhampton ‘s***’ via his Instagram story
Although this video was quickly taken down, it was online long enough for multiple screenshots to be taken before it went viral.
Madueke followed up with a message: ‘Damn, wrong Instagram account. You guys are too fast.’
After scoring his first ever Premier League hat-trick at Wolverhampton less than 24 hours after his negative viral comment, Madueke now at least has a reason to remember the West Midlands city fondly.
But he may not be back for a while.
Chelsea fans are loving him now, at least. One tweeted during Sunday’s game: ‘Called Wolverhampton a***hole. They booed him all game. Scores against them. Noni Madueke, you are HIM.’
He later deleted the post, claiming he uploaded the message to the wrong account
Madueke’s hat-trick came after he was booed by Wolves fans during Sunday’s match
A second Blues supporter cheered: ‘Wolves should scrap their entire club, Madueke was talking nonsense, scored a hat-trick and then Neto provided an assist on his return to his old club’.
Another message said: ‘No, Noni Madueke talked nonsense about that shitty city and proved it on the field. What a player.’
A fourth observer wrote: ‘Calling an entire city crap, then scoring a hat-trick against their football club the next day.
‘Madueke might have to leave here with her bodyguards’.
Finally, someone else tweeted: ‘Madueke calling Wolverhampton a ***hole and then scoring a hat-trick is villainy of the highest order’.
Madueke has now scored 13 goals in 48 games for Chelsea’s first team.
The Blues will play the return leg of the UEFA Europa Conference League play-offs against Servette in Switzerland on Thursday.