Paris (AFP)
French striker Ousmane Dembele apologized today for a video showing him insulting hotel workers in Japan, coinciding with his Barcelona club’s participation in an exhibition tour of football.
The 42-second video clip, which dates back to 2019, was leaked and widely circulated on social media.
In the tape, Dembele appears during a tour of the Catalan club in the archipelago in 2019, talking to his colleague and compatriot Antoine Griezmann, waiting for the arrival of local technicians to connect the game console to the TV in their hotel room.
“All these ugly faces, just so you can play Pro Evolution Soccer, aren’t you ashamed?” said Dembele. After mocking how the Japanese language is pronounced, he asked: Are you developed in your country or not?
Dembele, who is currently recovering from an operation he underwent due to an injury to his knee with his country against Hungary in the European Cup 2020, expressed his regret for what he said at the time.
The 24-year-old said on his Instagram page: A special video dating back to 2019 was recently posted on social media, as it happened in Japan, it could have been anywhere in the world and I would have used the same expressions, I was not targeting any Society.
He continued: The tape is now available to everyone, and I understand how it could have affected the people who appeared in it, and therefore I offer them my sincere apologies. The video was first published on the YouTube account with a small number of subscribers, before it was later circulated on Twitter, where it received more than 6000 retweets accompanied by the hashtag #Stop hating Asians.
In the same vein, Griezmann, in turn, emphasized that he had always been against all forms of discrimination, and insisted apologetically: I’m sorry if I offended my Japanese friends. The French striker, in turn, was criticized for appearing black-faced and dressed as players of the “Harlem Globetrotters” basketball exhibition team at a party.
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source https://pledgetimes.com/barcelona-striker-apologizes-to-the-japanese/
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