Enzo Fernandez, and a surprising outburst

It remains extremely surprising to hear such flagrant racism coming from a group of international footballers. Did no-one consider the consequences?

Hopes of a nice, quiet pre-season at Cobham appear to be going up in smoke. Following last season’s fairly unconvincing season–it’s only really possible to get giddy about finishing in 6th place in the Premier League if you’ve spent most of the season in 10th or 11th–and the wholly unsurprising departure of Mauricio Pochettino, new head coach Enzo Maresca’s arrival was only the start of yet another rebuilding project around Stamford Bridge. 

Maresca could surely have done without this headache. News that Enzo Fernandez live-streamed himself and other Argentina players singing a really quite grotesquely offensive song about the Black players in the France squad has hit hard. The French Football Federation are furious. Both UEFA and the Premier League are opening investigations. The price of his bigotry may well be a high one. 

But the costs of his behaviour were always going to be high, too. By Tuesday, Chelsea’s French players had unfollowed Fernandez en masse on Instagram. When Wesley Fofana spoke specifically against it, he was subjected to a flood of racist abuse as well. Fernandez has gone away for a break before his pre-season training begins, but what reaction he might get from the Black players within the Chelsea squad remains open to question. Marseca hasn’t spoken publicly since taking the job at the end of last season. We can hazard a guess at what his first question will be about. 

Of course, immediately there were people jumping into the replies claiming that it wasn’t when it very obviously was; people for whom what constitutes any definition of ‘racist’ is so high that it’s more or less impossible to hit unless you’re actually Adolf Hitler. The contents of this song are indisputably racist, whether in the inferences about dual citizenships and patriotism or its other cheap, lazy and demeaning stereotyping.

It’s reasonable to wonder what on earth was going on in his tiny mind when he decided to switch on the livestream. Did he not realise how just about certain it would be that, were anything contentious to be said (or sung), it would find itself getting into the public domain within nanoseconds? It can be heard at the end of the video; “switch the livestream off”. Well, somebody knew exactly what they were doing and what the implications of it might be. 

But even getting as far as this is jumping a couple of steps ahead of ourselves. What on earth is wrong within the culture of the Argentina men’s football team that this particular song, aimed at the France team since the 2022 World Cup final by fans, should have permeated itself into the actual culture of the squad itself? And what in turn does this say about the country’s broader issues with race, particularly in light of the election of far-right populist Javier Milei at the end of last year? 

And what of Fernandez himself? Did he give no consideration to the black player who’ll be expecting to command the respect of for the next ten months with his club team? Did he write it off in his head as just banter’? It’s tempting to think that he deserves whatever he’s got coming to him, but with eight years to run on a 9-year contract and a market value of over £100m, football will forgive him. His apology, posted on Instagram in baby blue Comic Sans, has, perhaps unsurprisingly, not put the matter to bed. 

It should come as no small wonder that Black French players might be a little on edge at the moment. They may have been defeated in the final reckoning, but in the build-up to that vote those players were on their social media channels, imploring the public not to vote for the National Front. In this country, meanwhile, despite the victory in our own general election, a double-digit percentage of voters opted for a party whose main selling point is that the Tories weren’t racist enough. This all amounts to a low-level state of wariness, a constant reminder of what separates you from them. Damn straight France’s Black players will be angry, when they hear yet more of this witlessness being thrown at them. 

And… for what, exactly? Argentina won that World Cup final in 2022 by the skin of their teeth, on a penalty shootout after a thrilling 3-3 draw. What, exactly, is the complaint with France, here? What have they done to warrant such derision? In the immediate aftermath of that match, the dickishness of the players could be attributed to high feelings in the moment. But as time has passed, it has felt increasingly clear that this is something far deeper. And this only further reinforces the idea that Argentina has an issue with racism that tends to get a little swept under the carpet. 

Chelsea would be right to be furious at his behaviour. This is a club which for a long time carried a very significant negative connotation with racism, but who have worked very hard on making that a thing of the past. Behaviour like this will be a backward step for a lot of good work if Fernandez is not appropriately punished or at least told to learn a little something from those who live on the receiving end of his ‘careless’ language.

Something like this has the potential to derail a pre-season, and with a new head coach and work to be done, this is unnecessary and self-inflicted noise coming from the top of the men’s first team squad. The message, if this is merely swept under the carpet, will be terrible optics for the club. But then, optics shouldn’t really be the point, should they? Basic humanity and fundamental decency should be the point, and in that respect Enzo Fernandez has let down no-one more than himself; at least you’d like to think so, anyway.