Chelsea played Arsenal in a pre-season friendly at the Bird’s Nest Stadium in Beijing, China and one player from the Blues side that definitely did not get a warm reception was 21-year-old Robert Kenedy.
The Brazilian came on as a substitute for Alsono with 20 odd minutes left on the clock. And as soon as the left-back stepped foot on the pitch he was greeted with boos. And this kept on up until the final whistle.
The reason why the Chinese fans heckled Kenedy is due to the fact that he has posted two photos on his Instagram account which gave the impression that he was mocking the country.
The first photo was captioned “Porra China” which means “f****** China” while the second one was a picture of a sleeping security guard captioned “Wake up China, you idiot”
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But Kenedy later clarified that his words were just expressions and not racism. He also apologised to his fans by saying, “Hello my friends, just wanna say sorry if someone was sad because I used the expression “porra”,
“Chelsea Football Club is very sorry for the social media messages posted by Kenedy yesterday evening,”
“This behaviour fell well below the very high standards we expect of our players. Kenedy regrets the posts and any upset they have caused and has apologised.
“Everyone at Chelsea Football Club has the utmost respect for the Chinese people, who have been the most incredible hosts and we are extremely grateful for their hospitality.”
