Kenedy may have just ended his Chelsea FC career this weekend. When you’re on the fringes as a player, you have no room for error, and what he did on social media was indeed a massive error. The Brazilian, 21, posted a video on his Instagram story in Portuguese, and when you translate the commentary into English, it reads “F**k China.”
He has since issued apology on the same platform, and deleted the post. His apology reads:
“Hello my friends, just wanna say sorry if someone was sad because I used the expression ‘porra’, was no racism, just a expression [sic]… big hug.”
When Kenedy was introduced at the Bird’s Nest Olympic Stadium in Beijing, prior to Chelsea’s preseason international friendly against Arsenal, his name name elicited a chorus of boos. Many on social media accused Kenedy of racism, which then led Chelsea football club to issue an apology to the nation of China.
Given the horribly racist acts committed by Chelsea supporters in a Paris metro stop a couple years ago, CFC certainly went proactive to distance themselves from another incidence which could be perceived as bigoted. The Chelsea statement says that Kenedy has been “strongly reprimanded and disciplined.”
“Even though he quickly deleted the messages and apologised, and the club also apologised via our Chinese social media channels, the damage had already been done,” the statement reads.
“Chelsea Football Club once again solemnly and sincerely apologises.”
“Kenedy’s actions were a mistake that he will learn greatly from. His behavior does not represent the entire team and does not align with the club’s high expectations and strict requirements of its young players.”
Kenedy also posted this story on Instagram, insulting a security guard at the stadium:
https://twitter.com/azpi1130/status/888813349001060352?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.telegraph.co.uk%2Ffootball%2F2017%2F07%2F23%2Fchelsea-say-sorry-chinese-fans-reprimand-kenedy-inappropriate%2F
The Chelsea FC statement continues: “Everyone at Chelsea Football Club has the utmost respect and admiration for China and loves our Chinese fans.”
“It is because of this that the negative impact we have seen over the last two days has left us shocked and saddened. Once again, we sincerely apologise for the hurt caused to our Chinese fans as well as to the Chinese people.”
Following the 3-0 win over Arsenal, Chelsea traveled to Singapore, to continue their summer exhibition tour.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV.
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