GERMANY’S Olympic football team walked off the pitch after Jordan Torunarigha was allegedly racially abused by an opposition player.
The team were playing Honduras in a friendly warm-up game ahead of Tokyo 2020.
But the game in Wakayama finished five minutes before the full-time whistle.
As tweeted by the official German Twitter account, the score was 1-1 when the players left the field in solidarity with their team-mate.
The reported racism happened after Felix Uduokhai had equalised for the Europeans against their Central American opponents.
Torunarigha told gaffer Stefan Kuntz about the incident and the head coach ordered his players off to abandon the game.
Kuntz said: “When one of our players is racially abused, playing on is not an option.”
Torunarigha’s team-mate, Union Berlin’s Max Kruse, vowed: “That is a statement that we always have to make when something like this happens: to leave the pitch, in no case to continue the game.
“It doesn’t matter whether it’s the first or the 90th minute. Racism simply has no place in football.”
Honduras, however, said there was simply a ‘misunderstanding’.
They tweeted: “The game was abandoned on 87 minutes due to the fact that a German player alleged a racist insult on the part of a Honduran national team.
“On the subject, the Honduran national team expresses that the situation was a misunderstanding on the pitch.”
SENDING SUPPORT
Fans on social media sent messages of support to the player and the team – just days after England trio Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka were abused.
One wrote: “Awful that this racism still continues, hats off to the team for leaving the pitch. Racism has no place here or anywhere.”
Another wrote: “Awful. Racism has no place anywhere – hope Jordan is ok.”
A third said: “That’s disgraceful. Well done Die Mannschaft and support from England!”
Torunarigha, 23, was born in Chemnitz in eastern Germany and joined Hertha Berlin aged nine, breaking through into the first team when he was 19.
He chose to represent Germany at international level – although he could have opted for Nigeria.
Earlier this year, he was involved in Schwarze Adler (Black Eagles), a documentary where black players shared their experiences in German professional football.
In February 2020, Schalke were fined £42,000 after fans targeted Torunarigha with racial abuse during a German Cup clash.
Germany are in Group D at the Olympics – which have been rearranged and will be behind-closed-doors Games.
Kuntz’s side face Brazil, Ivory Coast and Saudi Arabia as they look to go one better than the silver they won at Rio 2016.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
