Italian Soccer Shows Its Support For Black Lives Matter Movement

Solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement is gaining momentum across European soccer leagues, and Italy is no exception.

In the last weeks, many teams kneeled on the pitch before match start in both German Bundesliga and English Premier League to show their support to the anti-racism cause.

Several players followed suit in Italy’s top-flight soccer league Serie A, which resumed last weekend after 103 days of suspension amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The first goal netted after the long-awaited restart was scored last Saturday by Torino defender Nicolas N’koulou in the 1-1 draw against Parma.

The Cameroon-international celebrated by taking the knee in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement.

“When I scored, I immediately thought of my brother, George Floyd”, he commented later on Torino’s Twitter account.

The picture of his goal celebration was posted on Torino’s Twitter account with the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter.

However, the tweet sparked some criticism for its arguably well-advised choice of angle, with the 30-year-old defender kneeling in front of his teammate Andrea Belotti, awkwardly waiting for him to stand before embracing him.

Several Twitter users strongly criticized the choice of picture: “This is the worst possible picture you could have used”, says one of the replies under the post.

However, N’Koulou himself used the same image on his own Instagram profile and made no mention of offense.

The Torino defender was not the only one to show his support to the anti-racism campaign, as Inter striker Romelu Lukaku also celebrated by taking a knee in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.

The Belgian-international scored his 18th league goal of the season as Inter marked their return to Serie A action with a 2-1 win against Sampdoria.

Lukaku posted a photo of the moment on his Instagram profile, with the caption “This one is for all the people who are fighting against injustice. I am with you”.

However, players were not left alone to show their support to the Black Lives Matter movement, as several Serie A teams lined up with many anti-racism initiatives.

Last Thursday AS Roma has announced their players will have a ‘Black Lives Matter’ badge on his jerseys.

“The team will wear a special patch on their left sleeve which will feature the words ‘Black Lives Matter’ along with ‘ASSIEME’ – meaning Together, the name of the campaign the club launched to cover all of the Roma Cares activities during the Covid-19 crisis” reads a statement on AS Roma website.

The team will wear the patch for a total of 12 Serie A games, the first of which will be at Stadio Olimpico against Sampdoria on Wednesday evening.

“We believe that with the incredible global platform we have, we are in a powerful position to send out a clear message that Black Lives Matter. As a football club we are 100% committed to tackling racism in all forms,” said Paul Rogers, chief strategy officer at AS Roma.

The ‘Giallorossi’ were not the first ones to show their support as earlier this month AC Milan and Juventus joined together to take a stand against racism by wearing customized shirts before their Coppa Italia semi-final second-leg tie. 

All these gestures came across as particularly powerful, given that the Serie A has often been blighted by racism.

A spate of racist incidents has taken place in Italian football this season, with Romelu Lukaku and Mario Balotelli among the players targeted by monkey calls this season.

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