{"id":7533,"date":"2021-06-14T12:05:12","date_gmt":"2021-06-14T04:05:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesmartlocal.com\/vietnam\/?p=7533"},"modified":"2022-03-23T11:21:37","modified_gmt":"2022-03-23T03:21:37","slug":"referee-ryuji-sato","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesmartlocal.com\/vietnam\/referee-ryuji-sato\/","title":{"rendered":"Online Shop Owner’s “Ryuji Sato” Account Goes Viral After Referee Gives Vietnam A Penalty Kick"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clothing salesperson pretends to be Ryuji Sato on Facebook<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Every football match ends with celebrations on the winner’s side, and heartbreaks for the losing ones. Instead of blaming players or their coach, most ultra fans tend to vent their frustrations on the referee of the match.<\/span><\/p>\n

This can’t be truer for the World Cup 2022 Asian Qualifiers match on 11th June 2021, in which Vietnam defeated Malaysia 2-1<\/a>. This result was mainly due to referee <\/span>Ryuji Sato<\/b>‘s decision to give Vietnam a penalty kick after Nguyen Van Toan<\/strong> was tripped by a Malaysian footballer.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Thinking that it was unfair, thousands of Malaysia fans hunted down referee Sato’s Facebook page and stormed it with criticism right after the match. Unbeknownst to them, the page was not owned by the real<\/span> Ryuji Sato<\/span><\/a>, but a Vietnamese businesswoman looking to increase the page’s engagement.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Online shop owner changes Facebook\u2019s name to Ryuji Sato<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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\"Ryuji
\nImage adapted from: Ryuji Sato<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Knowing that Ryuji Sato would be among top Google trending searches the next day, a Vietnamese online shop owner who specialized in selling Guangzhou-imported clothing did something creative.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She changed the name of her Facebook page from \u201c<\/span>Qu\u1ea7n \u00c1o Qu\u1ea3ng Ch\u00e2u<\/b>\u201d, meaning \u201cGuangzhou Clothing\u201d to \u201c<\/span>Ryuji Sato<\/b>\u201d right before the match. The imposter even added the FIFA<\/strong><\/span> Futsal World Cup<\/strong> pictures onto the page.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Ryuji
\nImage adapted from: Zing<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Ryuji Sato\u2019s decision to give Vietnam a penalty kick in the 80th minute of the game made him a hero in the eyes of Vietnamese fans, and a sinner to many Malaysian football fans.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After the match, Ryuji Sato became a target of ire and his social media accounts were hunted down by many.<\/span><\/p>\n

Knowing that it was the right time to release the bait, the imposter posted a couple of statuses as follows, \u201cI did what I saw and I was completely fair, so don\u2019t complain about my decision. Congratulations Vietnam.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Ryuji
\nImage adapted from: Ryuji Sato<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

As a result, a great number of netizens thought that she was the real Ryuji Sato. Many Vietnamese fans have sent comments and messages of gratitude in the comment section, while Malaysian fans have taken a potshot at the fake international referee.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Ryuji
\nImage adapted from: Ryuji Sato<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Overnight, the imposter account of Mr Sato grew to over 4,000 followers thanks to outstanding engagement strategies.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, what is done by night, appears by day. After a thorough investigation of the FIFA referee’s Facebook page, Vietnamese sleuths discovered that it was not owned by the real Mr Sato.<\/span><\/p>\n

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She was busted and is now posting in Vietnamese<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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\"Ryuji
\nImage adapted from: Beatvn<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Little did the shop owner know that her Facebook setting allows the public display of the previous name of the page and the date of its name change. It revealed that she first created her Facebook to sell Guangzhou clothes on 9th May this year, and changed its name to that of Ryuji Sato on 11th June.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Instead of criticizing her, many netizens have praised her for her unthinkable marketing strategies. Some have proposed that maybe she did what she did out of her admiration for Ryuji Sato to distract haters from finding his real Facebook page.<\/span><\/p>\n

When her story was shared on a Facebook group <\/span>Beatvn<\/span><\/a><\/em>, it had gained 74,000 likes at the time of writing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Ryuji
\nImage credit adapted from: <\/span>Beatvn<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe engagement level is at a record high. What an excellent online salesman.\u201d Facebook user <\/span>Lineweb.org – Gi\u1ea3i ph\u00e1p web th\u01b0\u01a1ng m\u1ea1i <\/span><\/a>commented.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Ryuji
\nImage adapted from: Beatvn<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Facebook user <\/span>\u0110\u1eb7ng Vi\u1ec7t Ho\u00e0ng<\/span><\/a> predicted that she\u2019d get many delivery orders from Malaysian fans once she reveals her true identity, \u201cShe will be exhausted seeing tons of delivery orders from Malaysia.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Ryuji
\nImage adapted from: Ryuji Sato<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

After realizing that she had been busted, the imposter started posting her statuses in the Vietnamese language, which still have gained her thousands of likes.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Online businessperson creates Ryuji Sato imposter account<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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No matter the reason, the act of stealing the identity of anyone on social media is wrong. We hope that the fake Mr Sato will come around, delete this imposter account, or change its name to something else.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Besides, this incident also sheds light on an ugly truth that’s been existent in the football industry for decades. Instead of judging the results based on the players’ performances, many entitled fans pour scorn on the referees with hateful accusations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On a side note, the Football Association of Malaysia announced on 13th June that Nguyen Van Toan’s fall in the box was real and they agreed with the referee’s penalty decision, <\/span>Tuoi Tre <\/span><\/a><\/em>reports. Hopefully, Malaysian fans can give referee Ryuji Sato a break after hearing this.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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