German men’s Olympic football coach Stefan Kuntz says his players had no choice but to leave the pitch five minutes from the end of the match against Honduras after defender Jordan Torunarigha was allegedly a victim of racial abuse.
Saturday’s pre-Tokyo 2020 friendly, which was played behind closed doors in Wakayama, ended early shortly after Felix Uduokhai canceled Douglas Martinez’s first half.
A tweet from the German team’s official account read: “The match ended five minutes early with the score 1-1. Germany’s players left the pitch after Jordan Torunarigha was a victim of racial abuse. “
The Honduras national team then tweeted that the incident “was a misunderstanding”, but Kuntz is on the side of his team’s decision to take a collective stand by stepping off the pitch.
“When one of our players is racially abused, continuing to play is not an option,” Kuntz said during his post-match press conference.
“It was a strong statement. After the situation calmed down, the whole team from Honduras came to us and apologized. That was the end of the matter for us.
“We talked about whether we should have done anything else, but Jordan said ‘No, that was a pretty strong statement.’
“We want to close the topic there because now we fly to Yokohama to prepare for our next match.”
Stefan #Kuntz: “When one of our players is racially abused, continuing to play is not an option.” #WirfuerD #GERHON pic.twitter.com/nQBfmZf4To
– Germany (@DFB_Team_EN) July 17, 2021
Torunarigha plays for Hertha Berlin at club level and represented Germany from Under 16 to Under 23.
The 23-year-old was also the alleged victim of racist abuse in February 2020 in a DFB-Pokal match between Hertha and Schalke.
After the last incident on Saturday, Hertha offered their support to the central defender, tweeting the decision to leave the pitch in unison: “This is the only right decision!”
“His teammates immediately picked him up and hugged him for a few minutes,” added Kuntz, who made 25 caps for Germany’s senior men’s national team in his playing days.
“He was very relaxed and you could tell he was happy to be with us. After we also started joking a bit again.
“This team is fantastic. Of course it helps when you can see that your colleagues are supporting you so much. It’s also a strong statement from Jordan to say what we did was enough. “
Germany will face Brazil on 22 July in their first Group D match at the Olympics, before taking on Saudi Arabia and Ivory Coast.