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Black Italian Rugby Player Calls Out Benetton Team Over Racist Gift

Someone in the team, sponsored by Benetton, gave the rugby star a rotten banana during a “Secret Santa” exchange.

Cherif Traore, a Black Italian rugby player who plays prop for the Benetton Treviso team, has condemned his team and its management for making light of a racist Christmas gift he received during the annual “Secret Santa” exchange. The 28-year-old, who was born in Guinea but who has lived in Italy since he was 7, received a rotten banana in a garbage bag for his gift at the annual Christmas dinner. “Apart from finding it an offensive gesture, what hurt me the most was to see that most of my teammates who were present were laughing,” he said. “As if it was all normal.” Italian sports have long been a bastion for racism, with ignorant fans making monkey noises and throwing bananas onto the soccer and rugby fields. A tone-deaf campaign by Italy’s Serie A was condemned in 2019 for using monkey faces in an anti-racism campaign. Benetton Rugby issued a statement condemning the act, saying it “always condemned with the utmost firmness any expression of racism and/or form of discrimination.” All team members were summoned over the painful incident during which they apologized to Traore, who blamed the “idiocy” of one single team member.