Moise Kean: Leonardo Bonucci says black Juventus teammate ‘50-50 to blame’ for racist abuse from fans
Teenager subjected to monkey chants from the Cagliari supporters throughout game and responded by scoring and then celebrating in front of them
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Your support makes all the difference.Leonardo Bonucci insists Moise Kean must take “50-50 of the blame” after being racially abused by Cagliari fans in Juventus’ 2-0 victory.
The 19-year-old Italian was subjected to monkey chants throughout the contest, but after scoring the second goal at the Sardegna Arena he celebrated in front of the home fans to intensify the abuse.
Team-mate Blaise Matuidi was also taunted, but Bonucci incredibly partially blamed his young team-mate for the episode.
“Kean knows that when he scores a goal, he has to focus on celebrating with his teammates. He knows he could’ve done something differently too,” Bonucci told Sky Sport Italia.
“There were racist jeers after the goal, Blaise heard it and was angered. I think the blame is 50-50, because Moise shouldn’t have done that and the Curva should not have reacted that way.
“We are professionals, we have to set the example and not provoke anyone.
“I prefer to talk about the great performance. We were aggressive on the wings, as we knew they could cause problems with crosses.
“We knew Cagliari do zonal marking and leave that gap open, so we’d practiced in training yesterday and it worked out perfectly.”
Captain Giorgio Chiellini led the protests to referee Piero Giacomelli, while Cagliari captain Luca Ceppitelli pleaded with his supporters to stop the abuse.
Kean hit out at his abusers on social media after the game posting a picture of himself celebrating his goal with the following message: “The best way to respond to racism #NoToRacism.”
While he also posted a tweet with a finger to lips emoji.
Massimiliano Allegri also criticised Kean for the manner of his celebration before condemning the crowd for their actions.
“He shouldn’t have celebrated in that manner,” Allegri said.
“He is a young man and he has to learn, but certain things from the crowd also shouldn’t be heard.”
“You need great intelligence to deal with these situations and should not go to provoke people. That, of course, does not mean the idiots in the crowd and the way they reacted should be justified,” the Juventus boss said.
“As always in life, there are idiots who do stupid things and ruin it for everyone else.
“I don’t think talking about it all the time helps. I don’t think halting play helps, because not everyone in the stadium did that.
“We need to use the cameras, find those who are doing it and punish them. It’s very simple, identify them and not one-year ban or two, just give them a lifetime ban.
“We’ve got the technology, it can be done if the authorities want to. The problem is, they don’t really want to.”
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