FC Schalke 04: racist scandal surrounding European champion Steffen Freund

Status: 18:17 | Reading time: 3 minutes

D.The sporty descent also stopped at Mönchengladbach. 1: 4 on Saturday night was FC Schalke 04’s 25th game in a row without a win, which is why an all-time record is getting closer and closer. Tasmania Berlin had reached 31 games in the 1965/66 season without the maximum points, the Ruhrpottklub could break this negative sign in the near future.

Sport1’s “Doppelpass” program also tackled Schalke’s sad sporting present on Sunday. Among other things, former player Steffen Freund was invited as a guest – and he had a wrong tone.

When it came to criticism of the Royal Blues’ transfer policy, Freund said midfielders Nabil Bentaleb and Amine Harit, who were banned from the team, lacked the ability to fight for Schalke due to their origins. “Then you must know, Malochen, which is the most important thing. Every player must be ready to express their heart for the club. And I’m also with Harit, obviously he can’t do it with these roots “.

A racist accusation, which is why the reaction on the net came quickly. Twitter user @avocadogucci wrote: “If things don’t go well at Schalke, is it the fault of the foreigners? If he did not mean racist and Steffen Freund was interested in the individual character of the players, there is no reason to call the “roots of origin” as the cause of a person’s behavior. “

And @goenntherjauch said, “Steffen Freund knows roots so well, maybe you should ask him as a plant expert at Moma. No, but I’m not kidding: it’s embarrassing that unfiltered racism needs Twitter to get noticed. I look forward to the consequences of dopa “.

The Schalke team also intervenes. The pause for reflection has nothing to do with the roots of the players, the club tweeted.

The fact that Freund’s attempted apology later also failed was in line with the 1996 European champion’s verbal misstep: “Of course he didn’t mean,” he explained. “I just wanted to say that Nabil Bentaleb’s Algerian-French origins and poverty simply play a role, how you grow as a person and what your mentality is. In Tottenham, if he didn’t like the game, he left the training ground. “

Sorry via Twitter

In the late afternoon, Freund apologized on Twitter. He writes: “Anyone who knows a little about me and my career as a player and coach knows that I deeply hate any form of racism. Obviously, neither the color of the skin, nor the creed nor the origin are decisive for the performance of a player in training and on the pitch. No one is angrier than me that unfortunately I expressed myself so misleadingly during the live broadcast. I sincerely apologize for this. “

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