Soccer world condemns online racial abuse of Canadian star Alphonso Davies

Soccer personalities across Canada are condemning a barrage of online racist comments directed toward Edmonton’s Alphonso Davies this week.

The Bayern Munich star defender was bombarded with racist comments below an Instagram photo from August featuring him with girlfriend Jordyn Huitema on vacation in Spain.

Both Davies and Huitema play for Canada’s national soccer teams. Huitema also plays for the Paris Saint-Germain women’s club.

The stars responded by simply posting pictures of one another on their Instagram pages on Sunday. The captions had heart emojis and fists raised in the air. Commenting was turned off.

Former Vancouver Whitecaps midfielder Alphonso Davies, left, receives a hug from Canadian women’s national soccer team forward Jordyn Huitema after playing his final match as a member of the MLS soccer team, in Vancouver, on October 28, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

Canada Soccer condemned the flood of “hateful comments” in a tweet on Saturday evening.

The organization said it was “appalled” and stood firm “against racism and discrimination of any kind both in the game and within all our communities around the world.”

The tweet was accompanied with the hashtag #NoToRacism.

Canadian soccer personalities also tweeted their support for Davies and Huitema on Sunday.

Former Canadian international goalkeeper Craig Forrest said the comments were “disgusting” and called Davies and Huitema “two great Canadians.”

“We support them on the pitch but more importantly they need our support off it,” he added.

Jason deVos, the director of development at Canada Soccer, tweeted “[t]here is no place for these hateful comments in our world.”

John Herdman, the head coach of the Canadian men’s national team, also denounced the racist messages on Twitter.

“We see the best in human nature from Alphonso/Jordyn two kids I’ve worked with and then the worst with the moronic comments from the small minority of humans that will just never get it….”

The 20-year-old Davies, who recently returned from an ankle injury, is one of the fastest rising stars in the soccer world.

He is the first Canadian to win a Champions League men’s title. During the summer, Davies was named Bundesliga rookie of the year in voting by fans, clubs and the media.

Earlier this month, ESPN ranked Davies as the second-best left fullback in the world.

And last week, the Edmonton native was the co-winner of the Lou Marsh Trophy as Canada’s athlete of the year – alongside NFL lineman Laurent Duvernay-Tardif.