Gordon Ramsay turned up with Scotland’s national soccer team on Friday, giving the buildup to its World Cup match against Haiti a jolt of celebrity and a very public team welcome. The chef received a custom Ramsay 26 jersey, while a brief video showed him chatting with several players and shaking hands with them as they trained in Foxborough.
The timing mattered because the visit landed on the eve of the match, when every appearance around the squad carries extra weight. Ramsay, who was born in Scotland and once played for Glasgow Rangers as a teenager before a knee injury ended that path, has long been described as an avid soccer fan, and the setting gave the moment an easy logic: one of Scotland’s best-known figures stopping by just before the World Cup spotlight arrived.
What made the visit stand out was the tone. Ramsay is better known for sharp rebukes and kitchen barbs, but the footage showed him smiling and offering encouragement instead of heat. That softer edge matched the day’s other public gesture from him as he posted a World Cup inspired Juicy Lucy Burger with a Korean Twist on Instagram, a reminder that his connection to the tournament was not limited to a quick team call-in.
There was also a practical side to the attention around him. Ramsay operates multiple restaurants in the Boston area, and he has been leaning into the tournament elsewhere too, including a recent Uber Eats commercial that urged soccer fans to order delivery during World Cup games. In that ad, he asked, “Who could cook at a time like this?”
The jersey itself left one question hanging. The “26” in Ramsay 26 was not explained, but the number fits the kind of commemorative shirt teams often hand out when they want a personal keepsake rather than a match-day squad item. For Ramsay, the visit was less about celebrity cameo than a quick, visible tie between Scotland and one of its most famous sons, with Haiti next on the schedule and Foxborough briefly serving as the backdrop.
