Ronaldinho’s new Mexican club called for a local politician to be punished after he posted a racist slur against the Brazilian football legend on social media.
Carlos Manuel Trevino Nunez, a member of the conservative National Action Party, wrote a diatribe on Facebook, after the player’s presentation by Queretaro football club caused traffic jams in the central Mexican city on Friday.
“I try to be tolerant but I hate football and the dumbing down phenomenon it produces,” he wrote in a post that was deleted but later published by Mexican news organizations an on social media websites.
“I hate it even more because people obstruct and flood the avenues, and it took me two hours to get home, and this was all for an ape; Brazilian but an ape nonetheless,” said the post by the former Queretaro social services secretary.
The club, known as the White Roosters of Queretaro, issued a statement calling for an “exemplary punishment” against the politician.
“After the regrettable publication on social media by a person of public status, Mr Carlos Manuel Trevino Nunez, insulting our player Ronaldo de Assis Moreira ‘Ronaldinho,’ we exhort the authorities to look into the matter,” it said.
The 34-year-old former two-time world player of the year made the surprise move to Queretaro on Friday after leaving Brazilian club Atletico Mineiro in July.