The moment Sweden’s Jimmy Durmaz walked in as a substitute against Germany, little did he know that his short appearance would grab headlines for the wrong reasons. Jimmy Durmaz gave away a free kick to Toni Kroos in the Group stage game. This led to Sweden’s loss against Germany by 1-2 and this didn’t go down well with the netizens.

They took to social media to abuse the star footballer and labelled him as the ‘Arab devil,’ ‘terrorist,’ ‘Taliban’. The netizens even threatened his family members after their loss. The words obviously annoyed the star footballer. He issued a statement in which he slammed the netizens for crossing the line. He said, “When you threaten me, when you call me ‘Arab devil,’ ‘terrorist,’ ‘Taliban,’ then you have gone far beyond the limit. And even worse, when you go after my family, my children, threaten them. Who does such a thing? It is completely unacceptable. I am Swedish and I am proud to play in the Swedish national team. That’s the biggest thing you can do as a football player,” I will never let any racists destroy that pride. We must all stand against all forms of racism.”Durmaz said in the statement, which was published on the Swedish Football Association’s website.

He reported the incident to the police Hakan Sjostrand, secretary general of the Swedish FA said, “We do not tolerate a player being exposed to threats and violations. It is unpleasant and very upsetting to see the treatment that Jimmy Durmaz has suffered. Completely unacceptable.”

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 27, 2018 05:18 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).