Schalke 04 forced to apologize after fans hurl racist abuse at Youssoufa Moukoko

Schalke 04 issued an apology on its social media channels after fans of the Royal Blues were overheard abusing Borussia Dortmund starlet Youssoufa Moukoko as they hosted their derby rivals for a u19 match.

The 15-year-old Moukoko led the Yellow and Black to a 3-2 victory with a hat-trick. He was abused by the Schalke fans as he was celebrating his third, and game-winning, goal:

“I’ll break all your bones!”
“Go put yourself in grave!”
“Fuck off, you son of a bitch [Hurensohn]!”
“Fuck off you bla——!”
Totally “normal” reaction when an underage black person scores a goal.

Schalke responded relatively quickly, issuing their apology online — but not on their English-language Twitter account — within three hours of the match:

We can only apologize to Youssoufa Moukoko for the statements of some fans of the @knappenschmiede at #U19S04BVB. Despite all the emotions of a derby — we utterly condemn such insults and explicitly reject them.

The club announced in a second tweet that, “We will initiate the necessary measures in conjunction with @s04fanbelange” — their fan division.

Moukoko himself reportedly responded in an Instagram post (private account; via GOAL), “I am proud to be born with this skin colour and will always be proud.”

He told the Ruhr Nachrichten, “Something like that has no place in a Bundesliga game, and certainly not in a U19 game. That is very sad and I am glad that we gave a sporty answer on the pitch.”