Osimhen, Koulibaly receive racist abuse in Napoli win

SSC Napoli duo of Victor Osimhen and Kalidou Koulibaly have taken to their social media accounts to speak against the racist abuse they received from Fiorentina fans in their Italian Serie A matchday seven encounter at the Stadio Artemio Franchi on Sunday.

The incident occurred shortly after the match as the trio of Koulibaly, Osimhen and on-loan Cameroon midfielder Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa were heading into the dressing room after helping their side to a 2-1 comeback win in Florence, and a group of home fans starting spewing racist abuse at the African trio.

“They called me a fucking monkey,” Koulibaly wrote on Twitter. “These people have nothing to do with sport. You have to identify them and keep them out of any event.” While the Senegal international confronted the fans before being led away from the scene, Osimhen and Anguissa just smiled and walked away.

to “understand how disgusting it is to hate an
individual because of the colour of their skin.”

Fiorentina immediately put out a statement, saying “Fiorentina expresses the most firm and harsh
condemnation for the episodes of racism that
took place yesterday during the match against
Napoli, General Manager (Joe] Barone, already after the match, personally apologised.”

The club also promised to seek out the culprit(s) by reviewing CCTV footage and punish them according to the set rules. This was not the first public incident of racism in the Serie A this season, as AC Milan goalkeeper Mike Maignan was also at the receiving end of racist abuse in their 1-1 draw against Juventus three weeks ago. The abuser was found and banned from the stadium for life.

Napoli won their match against Fiorentina 2-1 to maintain their 100% start to the season in the Serie A. After going behind to a goal from Lucas Martinez Quarta, red-hot striker Victor Osimhen won a penalty for the Partenopei, which led to Hirving Lozano equalising, before Kosovo defender Amir Rrahmani scored the winner for Napoli.