Argentina won an incredible final after beating France 4-2 in penalties to bag the FIFA World Cup 2022, at the Lusail Stadium on Sunday. After an incredible 90 minutes, which saw Argentina relinquish a 2-0 lead to a brilliant brace from Kylian Mbappe, the match went into extra time where the Frenchman completed his hat-trick in the dying minutes to neutralise Lionel Messi's 108th-minute strike.
However, the brilliant spectacle of a final was overshadowed after French players Kingsley Coman and Aurélien Tchouaméni were subjected to racist abuse for missing their penalties in the shootout.
Coman's Instagram posts have been littered with "monkey" and "ape" emojis in a racist attack for his skin colour.
Both players, and a majority of the squad, have origins outside of France, especially in Africa, and their skin colour had been a talking point ahead of the final.
A Twitter user even shared a picture of France's starting XI that showed the country of origin of the players.
The racist attack on Coman's social media is eerily similar to what happened to England's trio of Jadon Sancho, Marcus Rashford, and Bukayo Saka after they missed their penalties in the final of the European Championships 2020, which England lost to Italy in penalties.
France's superstar Kylian Mbappe also spoke about the racist abuse he received after he missed a penalty in Euro 2022, in its defeat to Switzerland in the Round of 16.
The Paris Saint-Germain star was quoted as saying: “I cannot play for people who think I’m a monkey. I’m not gonna play.
“But after, I take the reflection with all the people who play around me and root for me, and I think it was not the good message to give up. Because I think I’m an example for everybody.
“This is the new France … It’s for that that I didn’t give up the national team. Because it is a message to the young generation to say: ‘We are stronger than that.’”
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