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Former Chelsea and Arsenal player Jorginho may be best known as a defensive midfielder – but he has gone viral on social media for his attack on pop singer Chappell Roan, alleging her security guard reduced his 11-year-old daughter to tears.

The 34-year-old Italy international, who has dual Brazilian citizenship and now plays for Flamengo in Rio de Janeiro, claimed in a post on Instagram, external that his family suffered the “very upsetting situation” over breakfast at a hotel in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

The former Premier League midfielder said his daughter was a big Chappell Roan fan and had made a sign to take to the Lollapalooza music festival in Sao Paulo, which the singer was headlining.

He says his daughter recognised the star while eating at a nearby table and walked past her, smiled, then went back to her seat without saying anything or asking anything of the Pink Pony Club singer.

“What happened next was completely disproportionate,” he wrote.

“A large security guard came over to their table while they were still having breakfast and began speaking in an extremely aggressive manner to both my wife [Catherine Harding] and my daughter, saying that she shouldn’t allow my daughter to ‘disrespect’ or ‘harass’ other people.”

He added: “He even said he would file a complaint against them with the hotel, while my 11-year-old daughter was sitting there in tears. My daughter was extremely shaken and cried a lot.”

Chappell Roan has not responded to his claims.

Jorginho said he understood well the pressures of public exposure after playing 57 times for Italy – helping them win the European title in 2021 by beating England at Wembley.

He has also played for elite clubs across Europe and Brazil – winning the Champions League and Europa League with Chelsea and silverware in Italy with Napoli.

But he added: “I understand very well what respect and boundaries are. What happened there was not that. It was just a child admiring someone.

“It’s sad to see this kind of treatment coming from those who should understand the importance of fans. At the end of the day, they are the ones who build all of this.

“I sincerely hope this serves as a moment of reflection. No-one should have to go through this, especially not a child.”

Jorginho finished his impassioned post with a direct message to Chappell Roan, written in capital letters: “WITHOUT YOUR FANS, YOU WOULD BE NOTHING. AND TO THE FANS, SHE DOES NOT DESERVE YOUR AFFECTION.”

The “unexpected beef”, as described by some commentators, led to a flood of responses on social media in support of Jorginho and his family – some serious, some tongue-in-cheek.

Rio de Janeiro’s mayor, Eduardo Cavaliere, wrote that he intended to ban Chappell Roan from performing in his city, adding that Jorginho’s daughter would be invited as a guest of honour to the city’s Todo Mundo music festival in May.

Others cited her previous comments about fans’ “creepy” and “stalker-like-behaviour”, external.

Some also poked fun at the Grammy Award winner for lacking the credentials to play in the Premier League.

“I am Punch and he is me.”

This is what my daughter recently texted in our family group chat. Her older sister had just asked us if we were “on the baby Punch-kun side of TikTok” because she had become like a “Facebook Mom, watching videos of him all day.”

If we weren’t before, we are now.

Punch is, as millions of his fans know, a 7-month-old macaque monkey living at Ichikawa City Zoo, outside Tokyo. Rejected at birth by his mother, he was initially cared for by zookeepers before being reintroduced to the monkey enclosure. His early attempts to fit in did not go well; the other monkeys gave him either the cold shoulder or a very hard time.

Until recently, his only comfort was a large orangutan plush toy that some brilliant member of staff gifted him as a tool for muscle building and maternal replacement.

Videos of the shy and utterly adorable Punch tentatively circling the larger monkeys, only to flee to the solace of his stuffy after being rebuffed, have drawn increasingly large crowds to the zoo and mesmerized millions on social media.

Messages of encouragement, often accompanied by memes of women (and men) sobbing into their phones over the sight of a yet-again-rejected Punch wrapping himself in the arms of his orangutan “mother,” or cheering as he slowly begins to be accepted by other monkeys, are almost as plentiful as the Punch videos themselves.

“I am Punch and he is me” is clearly a sentiment shared by many. Including those who, like my youngest daughter, were not (as I swiftly pointed out in the group chat) rejected in any way by their own mother.

Everyone knows what it’s like to feel small and bewildered as you circle a social group, seeking a way in, just as everyone knows what it’s like to be rejected by those whose approval we seek.

Of course some of us wept and raged when he once again had to flee some bigger monkey that he had clearly annoyed, but while Punch was certainly cowed, he was never broken. It was impossible not to admire his essential grip when he tried again, and to be reminded that none of us are alone in our attempts to fit in.

When Punch drags his stuffy around the enclosure, you can see some of the older monkeys giving him the side-eye — he is definitely the odd kid in the class, the one who always wore a space helmet or insisted she was a kitten. But the joy that little monkey feels for his orangutan, which he uses as shield, surrogate and playmate, is both heartbreaking and heartwarming.

As he nestles into its body, we see the primal need most animals, including humans, have for touch, for embrace. Of course he drags it around everywhere; short of the zoo staff, whose legs he also clutches, it‘s his only conduit of security.

Which is also something that many, if not all, of us understand. Anyone who says they have never had some personal item or talisman that, just by its presence, made them feel better is either lying, forgetting or a psychopath.

Why do you think teddy bears and Jellycats exist or “The Velveteen Rabbit” was written? In the era of “peak cozy,” with its devotion to lap blankets, hoodies and fleece-lined everything, no one could fail to understand Punch’s attachment to his comfort object.

When I was very small, I had, as many children do, a security blanket known as “Blankie.” It was pink and soft, with a satin edge and an oval stain caused by a regrettable interaction with Silly Putty. I talked to it, slept with it and carried it everywhere; when my mother insisted it be washed, I would sit in front of the dryer waiting for it to emerge.

When it somehow got lost in the hospital while I was recovering from a tonsillectomy, I was so traumatized that my mother drove back to the hospital for days in hopes that it would turn up. It never did but 55 years later, I can see, and feel, my Blankie still.

So I too am Punch and he is me.

Now that the Baby Monkey Who Could is finding comfort, grooming and companionship from others of his kind, there may come a time when he no longer needs his big stuffed orangutan.

Fortunately, it’s available at IKEA for anyone out there who might.