While AC Milan star Zlatan Ibrahimović recently criticized LeBron James for his political activism, the undisputed face of soccer in the U.S., Christian Pulisic, has largely been silent on the political front.
His Instagram “likes” may explain why.
Over the weekend, the U.S. Soccer athletes’ council voted to remove 2015 Paralympian Seth Jahn from the delegation after he made a racist speech at the general meetings. Jahn was speaking in opposition of the push to repeal the USSF’s anti-kneeling rule that was created in response to Colin Kaepernick’s and Megan Rapinoe’s peaceful protests of racial injustice. The council voted overwhelmingly to repeal the rule.
As U.S. soccer fans dove into Jahn’s social media amid his comments, they came across a troubling Instagram post that was “liked” by the Chelsea FC winger and USMNT captain.
Pulisic liking an Instagram post calling for the shooting of 'Antifa' members..
😬😬😬 pic.twitter.com/vtD9D6D9tK
— Footy Accumulators (@FootyAccums) March 1, 2021
the full caption of this makes it so much more problematic that it’s something Christian Pulisic likes and supports pic.twitter.com/wOK4w1X4Pq
— Kara Head (@KaraonTW) February 28, 2021
The June 30 post from Jahn showed him in a room full of guns, and in the caption, he advocated for the shooting of the anti-fascist movement called Antifa (he referred to Antifa with a NSFW spelling of the group). As of time of publish, Pulisic had not “unliked” the post.
In the post that was “liked” by Pulisic, Jahn wrote:
“waitin’ for [Antifa] to let me sing them the song of my people; same lullabies that’s been providin’ oppressor/terrorist dirt naps since #1776 🎶☠️ Stay dangerous, stay strapped, my friends”
USMNT and QPR defender Geoff Cameron was also in the comments and wrote, “I need to step my game up!”
On June 3, in response to the murder of George Floyd, USMNT star and Juventus midfielder Weston McKennie posted an Instagram video calling for an end to police brutality. Pulisic did participate in that video to say, “Enough is enough.” Yet, he “liked” Jahn’s post three weeks later. (Warning: The video contains graphic footage)
https://www.instagram.com/p/CA-v19aIn4P/
For The Win has reached out to both Chelsea FC and U.S. Soccer about Pulisic’s Instagram “like.” Chelsea FC declined to comment. But a source familiar with Pulisic said that he blindly liked the post as Jahn was an acquaintance.
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