Racist hostility against players
“Have to defend us”: Leipzig coach angry
13.02.2025 – 2:49 p.m.Reading time: 2 min.
Leipzig’s striker Loïs Openda had gone public with racist hate messages. His trainer is shocked – and keeps a flaming appeal.
Coach Marco Rose from RB Leipzig was shaken by the racist hostility against his player Loïs Openda. “Why? I don’t understand. I just want to learn to understand it. Why do you do something like that?” Said the 48-year-old visibly moved on Thursday-and then clearly spoke out against hatred and racism in an emotional appeal.
Openda had gone public on Tuesday after being attacked with racist insults on social networks. The Belgian international with Moroccan roots published some of the hateful news on Instagram. He wrote: “Nobody will force me to give up my dreams or goals in life. And even less these racists who hide behind a canvas. And then I am proud to be black.”
The club reacted immediately. In a message, RB Leipzig sentenced the agitation “strongly”. You are “angry and sad at the same time,” it said. Marco Rose also found clear words and asked to consistently take action against such incidents. “Let’s stand together, send out clear signals. We have to defend ourselves against it and not give the people who don’t want to understand or are too stupid,” said the Leipzig coach.
Rose also made it clear that he wanted tougher measures against the authors of the hate messages: “I would lock away such people. Point. Because how close is someone who writes such things in anonymity, on the point of putting such things into practice that would be terrible in the end? ” According to Rose, especially on the Internet, one has to act uncompromisingly. “I would be merciless,” he said.