Leonardo Bonucci was criticised by football fans around the world on Tuesday after he suggested Moise Kean was part to blame after he suffered racist abuse.
The Italian wonderkid was targeted by Cagliari supporters throughout Juventus' 2-0 win over their Serie A rivals. But Kean had the last laugh when he secured all three points for his side with a second goal five minutes before the end.
He celebrated by simply holding his arms out in front of the Cagliari fans. The abuse worsened and he was pulled away by his team-mates before the match resumed.
Bonucci, who opened the scoring for Juventus, spoke to the press after the game and astonishingly claimed Kean was part to blame for the abuse he receieved.
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"Kean knows that when he scores a goal, he has to focus on celebrating with his teammates. He knows he could've done something differently too," Bonucci told Sky Sport Italia.
"There were racist jeers after the goal, Blaise heard it and was angered.
"We are professionals, we have to set the example and not provoke anyone.
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"I prefer to talk about the great performance. We were aggressive on the wings, as we knew they could cause problems with crosses.
"We knew Cagliari do zonal marking and leave that gap open, so we'd practiced in training yesterday and it worked out perfectly."
Football fans took to social media on Tuesday night to respond to Bonucci's comments, and targeted a tweet posted by the Italian about the match.
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Alongside a picture of him celebrating scoring, the defender tweeted: "Happy to have celebrated my 250th appearance in Serie A with the jersey of Juve with a goal, the race continues!"
The tweet garnered hundreds of responses from fans, but each of them replied in the same way: by posting the image of Kean celebrating in front of the Cagliari fans.
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Meanwhile, one wrote: "Disgrace to football, how could you say it was him to blame for the racist chants through out the game Football has no room for racism."
And another added: "No courage to stand up for what's right and you let your 19-year-old team-mate down instead of being a real man. Shame."
