Joshua Kimmich has suggested white players should support their black teammates in protesting against the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd.
“We are one world, one club, one team of footballers. Whether you’re black or white it doesn’t matter. Like with Sancho, we as footballers have a lot of power to reach out to other people, to be role models and to say something. What we’re telling people outside gives us a huge opportunity to make a statement,” said the midfielder from Bayern to The Guardian. (Jadon Sancho displayed his support by revealing a ‘Justice for George Floyd’ shirt after scoring a goal in a recent match.)
Kimmich was inspired by the demonstrations and announced that an anti-discrimination statement is expected by Bayern’s team. “We talked about it and perhaps we can do something about it.” the German international said. “Perhaps we have to do something, because we can’t give a place to something like this.”
Kimmich has further said that, not just Bayern, but all footballers have an obligation to face up against racism:
“Perhaps it’s also an option to have a team say something. Football is like a role model, so it is not realistic to have anything like racism naturally in regular life-but particularly in football.
“It’s good that this is not just one player.”
