Erik ten Hag, the manager of Manchester United, responded to the possibility of an English FA ban following Alejandro Garnacho’s now-deleted post regarding Cameronnoan goalkeeper and Manchester United teammate Andre Onana.
The young Red Devil shared a picture of the Man Utd players praising Onana for his Champions League game-winning penalty save against Copenhagen in stoppage time. Ten Hag’s team won all three points thanks to this save.
Garnacho quickly deleted the post on X, the former Twitter platform, after posting two gorilla emojis as the only caption.
The Argentina international may now face punishment from the Football Association, but Onana jumped to his teammate’s defence when he said that the “matter should go no further.”
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Onana wrote on X: “People cannot choose what I should be offended by. I know exactly what @agarnacho7 meant: power & strength. This matter should go no further.”
Manager Erik Ten Hag has now confirmed that Man Utd and the FA are currently in communication regarding the post, with the governing body requesting Garnacho’s thoughts on his post.
Ten Hag said: “Not in this moment, we are talking with the FA, what you see, I can confirm that and I want to emphasise we are together, we are united, you saw that with the post of Andre.”
Even though the posts were made with the best of intentions, other football players have already been banned for similar offences.
In 2020, Edinson Cavani, a former striker for United, received a £100,000 fine and a three-game suspension for using the Spanish phrase “Gracias negrito,” which means “thanks little black,” beneath a friend’s Instagram post.
Cavani also completed a two-hour in-person training session for a remark that was reportedly meant to be a loving term in his home Uruguay.
The FA fined Bernardo Silva £50,000 and suspended him for one match in 2019 over a tweet he sent to his Manchester City teammate Benjamin Mendy.
With the tweet “Guess who?” Silva posted a picture of a young Mendy next to a picture of the Conguitos cartoon brand mascot from Spain.
The FA fined both Cavani and Silva for removing their messages.