Benetton Prop Shares Teammate’s Secret Santa Racist Gift

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Benetton and Italian prop Cherif Traore have accused their team of racism after they received a ‘rotten banana’ in a secret exchange with Santa Claus.

The 28-year-old was born in Guinea and has lived in Italy since he was seven years old. Traore has been playing with Benetton since 2015.

Traore made the announcement in a now-deleted Instagram post, where he expressed his disappointment at his Benetton teammates who mocked the incident.

“A friendly and fun moment. A moment when you can give anonymous, even ironic, gifts to your friends. Yesterday, when it was my turn, I found a banana inside my gift. A banana rotten, inside a wet bag.

Apart from finding it an offensive gesture, what hurt me the most was seeing that most of my teammates who were present were laughing, as if everything was normal.

I’m used to it, or I had to get used to it, having to put on a good face every time I hear racist jokes to try not to hate people close to me. Yesterday was different though. Fortunately, friends, especially foreign ones, tried to support me. Outside Italy, such a gesture is severely condemned.

I’ve been up all night. Young people from different backgrounds attended this Secret Santa. I’ve decided not to be silent this time to make sure episodes like this don’t happen again.”

Simon Zebo was among those in the rugby community to make his feelings known, calling out Benetton to the player who made the disgusting gesture.

Name and shame the bastard

Should be jobless pic.twitter.com/xWwcYX99xh

Simon Zebo (@SimonZebo) December 21, 2022

Since the despicable act was made public, Benetton has issued a statement condemning the incident.

“In reference to the post published this morning on the social profiles of Cherif Traor, Benetton would like to recall that it has always condemned in the strongest terms any expression of racism and/or form of discrimination.

It is not part of our culture and does not represent our identity and values. We have always proven it with deeds, not just words. Similar behavior has nothing to do with sport and in the face of episodes like this, Benetton will always be on the side of respecting people, their culture, their ethnicity, their faith and their dignity.”

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