‘Scream for me!’: Thai badminton player in hot water for mocking fans on Instagram post at Asian Games

Thai netizens are scourning a national badminton player for an Instagram post in which he eggs fans on to “scream for him” at the Asian Games in Jakarta — but not while he’s on the court.

You’ll forgive fans for thinking the international spotlight has gone to 19-year-old Kantaphon “Gun” Wangcharoen’s head after his Instagram post in which he seems to mock a crowd of excited fans waving at him through his vehicle window as he passes by. “Come on! Scream for me!” the video shows him sarcastically saying to the oblivious fans.

Though Kantaphon had made his Instagram account private since, that wasn’t before the video had already been re-shared multiple times via social media platforms and local news outlets.

Kantaphon, currently ranked 20th in Badminton World Federation singles competition, was eliminated in the quarter finals on Saturday, having lost to Tien Chen Chou from Taiwan. Nope, he didn’t even medal.

“How did you make the national team?” commented one netizen. “You have a terrible outlook.”

“Hey, your fan club was there to cheer you on. You shouldn’t speak to them like that,” wrote another.

To makes things worse, Kantaphon initially swatted down these criticisms with sarcastic replies like “Maybe I’m just not good enough for you. That’s why you didn’t come wait for me. Hehe,” and “Thanks for commenting on my instagram,” a sarcastic comeback that — as you can imagine — added even more fuel to the fire.

However, it appears someone finally knocked some sense into him as evidenced by the half-hearted apology he later issued — just before he made his Instagram private.

“I’m sorry for everything that’s happened, including my rude replies to commenters,” Kantaphon wrote on his Instagram story. “I’m solely responsible for this, but I can’t go back to fix the past so I can only apologize to all the Thai people.”

He even included the praying emoji. (Insert eye-roll emoji here.)

There has been no comment so far from the National Olympic Committee of Thailand, which is responsible for the athletes sent to the Asian Games.