Former German international footballer Bastian Schweinsteiger has been accused of employing racist stereotypes in his analysis of Germany's most recent World Cup opponents, Ivory Coast, at the weekend.
Ahead of the Group E clash in Toronto, which Germany won 2-1, Schweinsteiger said in his role as a pundit for German public broadcaster ARD that the Ivorians played "African football" which he characterized as "a bit unorthodox sometimes, a bit wild, not quite as tactical."
The 2014 World Cup winner said Germany needed to be "prepared for it to be unpredictable at times."Why were Schweinsteiger's comments problematic?
Schweinsteiger's comments prompted reactions on social media and in German mainstream media accusing him of using racist and colonial tropes which reduce Black people to supposed physical attributes rather than crediting them with intellectual ability. The former Bayern Munich and Manchester United midfielder has yet to publicly comment on the matter.
"Behind attributions like 'wild' and 'unpredictable' are stereotypes which are older than football and which have racist, colonial roots," explained Philipp Awounou, a Black German journalist and author, in a column for Spiegel news magazine.
