The Bundesliga star has taken to social media to apologise for any offence caused by the costume
Bayern Munich star Rafinha has spoken out after being heavily criticised for his choice of Halloween costume while on a night out with club teammates.
The former Schalke man, who plays right-back for the Bavarian side, was photographed on a night out with teammates, all of whom were also dressed in Halloween costumes.
But while the rest of his teammates chose the more typical and boring vampires, Batman, zombies and Jigsaw from the Saw movies, Rafinha appeared to opt for the highly controversial “Arab bomber”.
Wearing a traditional keffiyeh and a white robe with dark sunglasses – clothes commonly worn in the Middle East – Rafinha caps off the costume with a box adorned with sticking featuring the word “vorsicht”, which is German for “caution”.
Unsurprisingly, once his costume became public knowledge photos of it were shared far and wide, and the criticism for the Brazilian defender was both swift and plentiful, with many disappointed to see such a well-known footballer using lazy and offensive stereotypes.
https://twitter.com/bavarian_atk/status/1057958995409940480
Oh no Rafinha. Why? Just why?!? pic.twitter.com/qU5pDPNzX1
— Gary B 🦁 (@GaryBolton91) November 1, 2018
We are disappointed that the misleading media found its way to Rafinha and he thought it would be funny to portray Arabs as terrorists. He represents Bayern and a large part of Bayern’s fanbase are Arabs. We demand an apology.@R13_official@FCBayern#UnculturedRafinha pic.twitter.com/0MGFTWpoWt
— خليفه الفضلي (@Khalifanovic) November 1, 2018
The extent of the criticism forced the 33-year-old to issue a public apology, of sorts anyway.
“Halloween is a scary celebration with exaggerated costumes, it was not my intention to anger anyone through my disguise or hurt someones feelings,” he said on Twitter.
Halloween is a scary celebration with exaggerated costumes, it was not my intention to anger anyone through my disguise or hurt someones feelings. pic.twitter.com/ZZumqzpLBD
— Rafinha 13 (@R13_official) November 1, 2018
His apology on Instagram appeared to stoke even more anger though, and it’s not hard to see why.
Rafinha uses the 'I have a lot of Arabian friends' excuse.
How are there still people in the world who think that justifies racist actions? pic.twitter.com/JEkpAMhg6J
— Lewis (@LGAmbrose) November 1, 2018
