Chelsea midfielder Enzo Fernandez has been the focus of unwanted attention in the last week, after he posted a live stream of himself and the Argentina team singing a racist song towards the French national team. Chelsea teammates Wesley Fofana, Axel Disasi and Malo Gusto have manifested their distaste at the incident, and he is facing an investigation at Chelsea.
Atletico Madrid midfielder and Argentina teammate Rodrigo de Paul has tried to play down the incident. Speaking on Olga en Vivo, via Diario AS, de Paul said that Fofana had gone about it the wrong way by criticising Fernandez on social media.
“You don’t analyse the songs that much. I can understand people who have suffered racism and don’t like it, but then there is a place for everything. If someone or a colleague of Enzo feels offended, the way to go about it is to call him if you know him personally, not to put it on social networks. There is a bit of malice in it, or maybe wanting to put Enzo in a spot that he has nothing to do with. You don’t have to do add fuel to the fire, or make it into a show.”
De Paul’s responses are certainly startling for an international audience, and perhaps speaks to the heart of the problem – a complete lack of understanding of the gravity of those words. With French teammates Thomas Lemar and Antoine Griezmann waiting for him back in Madrid, he could be in for an awkward reception.
