Italian rugby player Cherif Traoré calls out the Benetton team for a racist gift

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Cherif Traore, a black Italian rugby player who plays as a prop for the Benetton Treviso team, has condemned his team and management for coming to light over a racist Christmas present he received during the Annual Secret Santa Exchange. The 28-year-old, who was born in Guinea but has lived in Italy since he was 7, received a rotten banana in a bin bag as a gift at the annual Christmas dinner. Besides finding it an offensive gesture, what hurt me the most was seeing most of my teammates who were there laughing, he said. As if everything was normal. Italian sport has long been a bastion of racism, with ignorant fans making monkey noises and throwing bananas on football and rugby pitches. A deaf Italian Serie A campaign was condemned in 2019 for using monkey faces in a campaign against racism. Benetton Rugby issued a statement condemning the act, saying it has always condemned in the strongest possible terms any expression of racism and/or any form of discrimination. All members of the team were summoned for the painful incident in which they apologized to Traore, who blamed the idiocy of a single member of the team.

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