African players speak out over George Floyd death
Paris, Wednesday
Achraf Hakimi is among several African sportsmen to show support for the late African-American George Floyd after the Morocco international scored in Borussia Dortmund’s 6-1 thrashing of Paderborn.
The United States has seen a number of protests in major cities across the country since Floyd, an unarmed black man, died while being restrained by white Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin on 25 May.
Hakimi demonstrated his support on Sunday by crossing his fists in the air in a sign for justice after scoring in the 84th minute, while also lifting his jersey to reveal ‘Justice for George Floyd’ handwritten on his vest.
The right-back, who is on loan at Dortmund from Real Madrid, also tweeted to say: ‘Together we will defeat racism! Justice!’
Union Berlin’s Nigerian forward Anthony Ujah also took to Twitter to speak on the issue, posting a picture of himself with his shirt bearing the words ‘can’t breathe’, ‘justice’ and ‘Eric Garner’, another black man who died at the hands of police back in 2014.
Ujah tweeted a picture of a previous protest of his but with ‘George Floyd’ now edited into the shot.
On Monday, Senegal’s Sadio Mane and Egyptian Mo Salah joined their Liverpool team-mates in sending a message of solidarity as the squad ‘took a knee’ around a centre circle during the Reds’ training session on Monday.
