It was another blow for the German national team: After group-stage exits at the World Cups in Russia and Qatar, Germany suffered another early exit on Monday. This time, at the FIFA World Cup 2026 — a defeat to Paraguay, 4-3 on penalties in the round of 32.
Midfielder Jonathan Tah missed the decisive spot-kick, and within minutes, numerous users wrote racist comments and insults on Tah's social media channels. Then, the following claim went viral:
Claim: Deutsche Welle reported that after Tah's missed penalty, some Germans were collecting signatures calling for a ban on "Africans" and "Muslims" from playing for the national team in the future. This was according to this Spanish-language post on X with more than 2 million views, and this one with more than 900,000 views. The claim also circulated on other platforms such as Facebook.
DW Fact check: False.
DW did not report on an alleged petition against certain playersImage: Facebook
