Jack Von Engelbrechten and his friend Rowan Leask had two goals when attending the Football Ferns versus Switzerland game in Dunedin on Sunday — get on TV and get the striker’s attention.
The two prepared a sign for the game which read "Alisha Lehmann sign my belly so I can be seen on Telley".
"We were just like, ‘yo this rhymes, let’s get it up there’," Mr Von Engelbrechten said.
But when images of the sign were beamed around the world, it made the wrong kind of headlines.
Media outlets including British tabloids The Sun and The Mirror labelled it "creepy" and quoted a viewer calling the pair "weird perverts".
Mr Von Engelbrechten said the pair meant no offence.
They had even jumped through the correct official hoops by submitting a photo of the sign to Fifa for approval before the game.
"If Fifa thought it was appropriate, then we were like, ‘yeah OK, should be fine then’."
The pair admitted being starstuck by Lehmann, who has 14 million Instagram followers.
"She’s an Instagram sensation and we just wanted to either get a photo or a signature."
He recalled the moment his friend discovered the first disparaging news article online.
"Rowan just came running down in the morning and was like, ‘yo! We’re famous, we’re famous!’
"He was like, ‘it’s not for good reasons’."
He thought the media response was "a bit of an overreaction".
"The sign might have been inappropriate, but I don’t think ‘pervert’ and ‘creepy’ is quite necessary."
