A Brazilian football player competing in the U.K.’s Premier League was booed by offended Chinese fans for “unintentionally” insulting China and its people in a Beijing event on Saturday.
Robert Kenedy, defender for the Chelsea Football Club, stirred outrage after posting two videos on Instagram while touring the country last week.
According to Goal.com, the first video was captioned “F*cking China,” while the second showed a sleeping security guard with the caption “Wake up China. You idiot.”
Needless to say, many were offended and speculated racist undertones in Kenedy’s comments. As a result, the 21-year-old received jeers throughout his 20 minutes of play in the Asia Trophy match against Arsenal on Saturday, the Daily Express noted.
Kenedy has since apologized for his posts, denying racism and pointing that “porra” — which literally translates to “semen” in Portuguese — was “just an expression.”
Meanwhile, Kenedy’s team also issued a statement on its verified Sina account, stressing that everyone at the club has the “utmost respect” for Chinese people.
However, both apologies did not live up to local netizens’ expectations. Over 3,500 comments flooded Chelsea’s post, some of which read (via CGTN):
“[The Chelsea Football Club] has not published any statement for an apology. Just wrote a post on its Weibo account in Chinese and then translated to English,” one user wrote.
“The English word is ‘sorry’ but not ‘apologize.’ What do you mean?” another commented.
“Please apologize sincerely and then get out. You are insulting Chinese people and your club. You are not welcomed,” one netizen replied, which received more than 2,000 likes.
Kenedy appears to be the second Brazilian to draw flak from racist accusations in the international scene this month, following variety host Raul Gil who berated K-pop group KARD on live TV.
