Enzo Fernandez will never be forgiven by some Chelsea players and therefore must be sold, according to former Stamford Bridge striker Tony Cascarino.
Fernandez faces disciplinary proceedings at Chelsea after posting a video on social media that the French Football Federation said included ‘racist and discriminatory language’.
In the video, which was filmed after Argentina beat Colombia to win Copa America, several players are singing a chant questioning the heritage of France’s black and mixed-race players.
Fernandez, who completed a £107m move to Chelsea in February 2023, said he was ‘truly sorry’ for the video.
His Stamford Bridge team-mate Wesley Fofana described the chanting as ‘uninhibited racism’.
Fernandez could yet be punished by Chelsea and FIFA over the incident but Cascarino believes only his departure from west London would satisfy some of his team-mates.
Speaking on talkSPORT, he said: ‘It’s going to be tricky. I look back at when I was at Chelsea in the 90s and I’m not sure that dressing room would be okay with what Enzo Fernandez did.
‘That’s a tricky one to handle. I think Chelsea have got a major decision on whether they actually keep Enzo Fernandez.
‘Having players not happy with a guy in the dressing room, I’m not sure there will be many that comfortable with some of the things that have gone on.
‘There’s no excuse for that to go out. It’s not going to sit well with the other players is it?
‘I don’t know how you can handle it because there will be players who can’t forgive. There might be some who can move on despite not liking what happened.
‘You don’t need everyone to like each other at a club but this is a really, really tricky one. Some players won’t want to move on or make it work.
‘He’s going to have to apologise to the squad face-to-face as well and maybe then there will be a bit more forgiveness.’
Asked where Fernandez could go if he is forced to leave Chelsea, Cascarino added: ‘It’s quite easy to see where he could go: Saudi Arabia. They’re prepared to pay big fees and big wages.’
While Fernandez has received widespread criticism for his part in the video and the racist chanting, Argentina midfielder Rodrigo De Paul described it as a ‘joke’ and criticised Chelsea’s player for unfollowing his team-mate on social media.
‘What happens with this song thing is that one doesn’t analyse the song from the pitch, one sees it more in relation as a joke,’ De Paul said in an interview with Migue Granados on OLGA.
‘Then I can understand people who have suffered racism and don’t like it.
‘I think there are places… I think that if a person, or some of Enzo’s teammates as it happened, feels offended, the way to do it is to call him, not expose him on social media.
‘There is a bit of malice there or wanting to put Enzo in a place that has absolutely nothing to do with it.
‘It’s very strange, it’s like kicking a fallen tree. You call him and say, ‘dude, what happened?’.
‘If you have a relationship… these are people you’re with in the dressing room all the time, unfollowing him seems pointless to me.
‘You call him and say, ‘listen, I think we might feel affected by this, why don’t you post a message apologising to the people’, and the subject ends there. Don’t make such a show of it.
‘What I can say in defence of Enzo is that, obviously, the song is there because it was there, because people sing it.’
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