The fight against racism in football is getting more and more challenging as Germany’s men’s Olympic football team walked off the field with five minutes left of their friendly against Honduras after one of their players was racially abused. The player, a defender with the name Jordan Torunarigha was allegedly racially abused, so the other players decided to leave the field.
The game was played behind closed doors in three 30-minute periods, did not resume and finished 1-1. 23-year-old Torunarigha plays for Hertha Berlin in the German Bundesliga. Honduras led after the first period, with Ausburg’s Felix Uduokhai equalising in the final third.
A tweet from the official Germany national team in English account said: “The game has ended 5 minutes early with the score at 1-1. The German players left the pitch after Jordan Torunarigha was racially abused.” The official Honduras national team account also responded to the incident as they tweeted, saying the incident was “a misunderstanding”.
Germany coach Stefan Kuntz said: “When one of our players is racially abused, playing on is not an option.” The match was a warm-up for their Olympics campaign, which starts against Brazil on Thursday, 22 July. Torunarigha made 14 league appearances last season as Hertha finished 14th in the Bundesliga.
Recently we heard cases of three English players Marcas Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Saka, who were racially abused after they missed a penalty in the Euro 2020 final between England and Italy. The missed penalties gave Italy the trophy and fans took social media to abuse the three players and so far five arrests have been made in this regard.