Amadou Onana, a key player for Belgium, played every minute in the group stage of the European Championship as they finished second behind Romania. However, a video was posted on Belgium’s social media outlets featuring Onana jokingly saying he will kick France captain Kylian Mbappe when the teams meet in the last 16.
The video, which has since been taken down, showed comedian Pablo Andres singing a song about kicking Mbappe’s shin, to which Onana responded by saying his own name. This resulted in backlash from fans and media in France, prompting an apology from the Royal Belgian Football Association.
Belgium media spokesman Stefan van Loock expressed regret for the video at the team’s news conference, explaining that it was meant to be humorous but was not well received. The two countries are set to face off on Monday in Dusseldorf, with tensions potentially running high due to the incident.