Son Heung-min has confirmed Rodrigo Bentancur has apologised for making a racist joke about him during a television interview in Uruguay, saying his Tottenham teammate had “made a mistake”.
The anti-discrimination charity Kick It Out said on Wednesday it had received a “significant number” of complaints regarding Bentancur’s comments, in which the midfielder appeared to say that South Korean people “all look the same”. Spurs said that they have been “providing assistance” to ensure that the 26-year-old Uruguayan is educated along with the rest of the squad in the club’s diversity, equality and inclusion objectives.
“We fully support that our captain Sonny feels that he can draw a line under the incident and that the team can focus on the new season ahead,” the club posted on X. “We are extremely proud of our diverse, global fanbase and playing squads. Discrimination of any kind has no place at our club, within our game or within wider society.”
Son said: “I’ve spoken with Lolo [Bentancur]. He made a mistake, he knows this and has apologised. Lolo would not mean to ever intentionally say something offensive. We are brothers and nothing has changed at all. We’re past this, we’re united, and we will be back together in pre-season to fight for our club as one.”
Bentancur previously posted: “Sonny brother! I apologise to you for what happened, it was just a very bad joke.”