Allegri Hits Out At Bonucci Over Kean Racism Claims

By Joshua Walters

Juventus boss Massimilano Allegri has hit out at Leonardo Bonucci over the defender’s comments on the racist abuse of teammate Moise Kean, saying the Juve captain ‘expressed himself badly” when he offered his opinion on the issue.

Bonucci seemed to play the equalisation card when he said Kean was partly to blame for the monkey chants that were hauled at him by a section of Cagliari fans during Juventus’ 2-0 win at the Sardegna Arena.

Bonucci said in a post-match interview that Kean needs to shoulder 50 percent of the blame of the incident during the Serie A clash, but later said that he had been ‘misunderstood’ after widespread condemnation by some sports personalities.

Bonucci thought Kean invited the insults on himself by choosing to celebrate his late goal in front of the home fans behind the goalpost, who for the most part of the evening, were already directing monkey chants at the player.

Allegri, who was himself criticised for saying Kean should not have celebrated scoring against Cagliari in the manner he did, tried to set the record straight at the club’s press conference on Friday.

“Racism must always be fought against and is never justifiable,” Allegri said in quotes reported by the club’s official Twitter account.

“With his mind still on the game, post-match, Bonucci expressed himself badly but realised this and apologised. These two things are distinct.”

The home team also tried to persuade the fans to stop making the offensive chants as Cagliari skipper Luca Ceppitelli led an appeal to the fans behind the goalpost.

The incident led to a delay of about three minutes after which an announcement was done on the public address system to highlight the issue, but that even intensified the jeers from the home fans.