Turkey's Sports Minister meets Drogba, Webo amid racism debate

ISTANBUL – Hürriyet

(L-R) Galatasaray’s Ivorian player Didier Drogba, Youth and Sports Minister Suat Kılıç and Fenerbahçe’s Cameroonian Pierre Webo meet in a lunch. DHA photo

Youth and Sports Minister Suat Kılıç met with Didier Drogba and Pierre Webo in the wake of the racism controversy in Turkish football.

Kılıç invited Galatasaray’s Ivory Coast star Drogba and Fenerbahçe’s Cameroonian forward Webo to a lunch. Last week, the two players came up against each other in the latest renewal of Turkish football’s biggest rivalry, but off-the-pitch issues stole the limelight, as some fans were photographed with bananas, showing them to the pitch in a purported racist gesture.

“When I was watching, I thought that he would just throw the banana onto the pitch, I did not have the slightest idea that it was a racist gesture,” Kılıç said. “The incidents saddened us like you.”

The game ended in a 2-1 win for Fenerbahçe, with two goals from Webo. Drogba said that he found it funny that Webo scored the winning goals.

“The one who did that forgot that there was a brother in his own team,” Drogba said.

The Ivory Coast icon added, “That was not the first time in the world, it happens. I am really happy in Turkey and I know that it was just an individual act.”

Last week, the two fans who were photographed with bananas denied having racist motivations.

Webo said that the controversy should be left behind.

“I think it is best not to speak of it. The more we speak, the worse it gets,” he said. “That was just not right. We know what racism is but we are very comfortable in Turkey.”