Argentinian forward Ezequiel Lavezzi involved in racism controversy
Argentinian forward Ezequiel Lavezzi, a football player for China Fortune in the Chinese Super League, has found himself in a controversy caused by the leakage of a photo in which he appears squinting his eyes, which some netizens have interpreted as racism towards the Chinese.
"Many foreigners make money in China and insult the Chinese. I don't understand why we appreciate them so much," wrote a Weibo user - Chinese Twitter - identified as Hua Junyi.
However, not all netizens have reacted negatively to the photograph. Another user, Duo Shupai, states: "You are too sensitive. Don't the media have anything else to do?"
The player has responded and issued a statement in which he "apologizes" for the "inconvenience and confusion" he may have caused fans and assures that he never had the "bad intention of humiliating people of Chinese nationality".
"I have learned this time and I promise it will not happen again," adds Lavezzi, who posed for promotional photographs for the top Chinese competition, but the picture that caused the uproar was not among the ones released until now.
Before these images were made public, Lavezzi had already made headlines this week after the well-known football player leaks page Football Leaks claimed that 'Pocho' pockets a salary of £798,000 per week, or the equivalent of €49 million ($53.8 million) per year.
These figures, which would make the former PSG (France) or Napoli (Italy) player the highest-paid footballer in the world, do not seem to be reflected in his performance on the field, where he has only managed to score 2 goals in 16 matches with the shirt of the team led by the Chilean Manuel Pellegrini.