Chelsea midfielder Enzo Fernandez filmed Argentina’s players singing a racist chant about France after their victory at the Copa America.
Argentina’s players were celebrating on their team bus following their 1-0 extra-time win over Colombia in the Copa America final on Sunday evening.
Fernandez was filming on the bus, which was broadcast live on Instagram, and the midfielder stopped the video moments after members of Argentina’s squad started up the chant.
The racist and transphobic chant, which was first sung by Argentina supporters during the 2022 World Cup, claims that France’s players are ‘all from Angola’ and makes a vile reference to a reported relationship between Kylian Mbappe and transgender model Ines Rau.
During Fernandez’s live broadcast, Argentina’s players could be heard singing the first two lines of the song, ‘on passport, French nationality, listen, spread the word, they play in France, but they are all…’, before someone is heard saying, ‘cut the video’.
The full lyrics to the song are: ‘Listen, spread the word, they play in France, but they are all from Angola, they are going to run well, they like to sleep with trans people, their mum is Nigerian, their dad is Cameroonian, but on the passport it says: French.’
Fernandez, 23, plays alongside several black French teammates at Chelsea including Benoit Badiashile, Axel Disasi, Wesley Fofana, Malo Gusto, Christopher Nkunku and Lesley Ugochukwu.
The Argentine midfielder was signed by Chelsea in a €121 million (£106.8m) deal from Benfica in January 2023.
Fernandez’s return to Chelsea’s pre-season training will be delayed due to his participation at the Copa America this summer.
Argentina’s Football Federation has yet to acknowledge the video of their players singing the chant during the celebrations on the bus.
Enzo Fernández apologised on Instagram in response to the viral video of him and other Argentina players singing about French players with African heritage.
