I do not read any "frivolous anti-intellectualism" in this context. Caffarelli is, for all intents and purposes, unknown to the public (unknown even to me, who

I do not read any "frivolous anti-intellectualism" in this context. Caffarelli is, for all intents and purposes, unknown to the public (unknown even to me, who has a PhD in a field adjacent to applied mathematics). Messi is well known (I know about him). Both are from Argentina. Newspapers need people who read articles. It was neither a click-baity title (Caffarelli played soccer with Messi!) nor an inaccurate one.