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Published 11:21 IST, October 22nd 2020

Antoine Griezmann demands respect for Ansu Fati after Spanish outlet makes racist remarks

Antoine Griezmann slammed a Spanish outlet for making derogatory comparisons to describe Barcelona starlet Ansu Fati's performance against Ferencvaros.

Reported by: Sujay Chakraborty
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Barcelona attacker Antoine Griezmann called out Spanish news outlet ABC for making racist comparisons to describe his young teammate Ansu Fati. During Tuesday's Champions League opener against Hungarian side Ferencvaros, Ansu Fati netted Barca's second of the night as he became the first player to score two UCL goals before turning 18. Fati's inspired performance helped the Catalan giants register a comfortable 5-1 win on Tuesday.

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Ansu Fati racism incident: Griezmann slams Spanish outlet

ABC Reporter Salvador Sostres used a controversial anecdote to describe Ansu Fati's performance in the Champions League group stage match. Sostres compared Fati to "black street vendors" running in the streets of Barcelona.

"Ansu was close to scoring with a kick of a pure striker, perfectly turning his body. Ansu when running has something similar to a gazelle, he looks like a young and black street seller, the one you could see running in the Paseo de Gracia (in Barcelona) shouting "water, water" announced that the Guardia Urbana had arrived," excerpts from Sostres' match report read.

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Antoine Griezmann shared a screenshot of the report on Twitter, slamming the journalist for his poor choice of words to describe Ansu Fati's performance against Ferencvaros. The Frenchman called out the publication for their derogatory remarks while claiming the 17-year-old deserves respect like any human being. "Ansu is an exceptional kid who deserves respect like any human being. No to racism and no to bad education," Griezmann wrote on Twitter:

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The Frenchman's tweet had a tremendous impact online as it already garnered over 25,000 retweets and nearly 100,000 likes. Fans lauded Griezmann for his defence of the Barca starlet.

Ansu Fati, 17, has started the 2020-21 season in red-hot form. He has already scored four goals and provided two assists in five games in all competitions. Barcelona's youngest goalscorer made his first-team debut last season, going on to score eight goals and providing one assist in 33 appearances. 

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Antoine Griezmann was on the bench on Tuesday as head coach Ronald Koeman tinkered with his lineup. Lionel Messi opened the scoring with a first-half penalty. Philippe Coutinho, Ousmane Dembele and Pedri scored to complete the rout. Veteran defender Gerard Pique was shown a straight red in the second half after he brought down Ferencvaros striker Tokmac Chol Nguen in the box. Igor Kharatin scored the resultant penalty to register a Camp Nou goal for the visitors.

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(Image Credits: Barcelona Twitter)

11:21 IST, October 22nd 2020