Former Argentina manager Jorge Sampaoli has apologized to French forward, Ousmane Dembele for describing his style of play as Autistic.
A few days after Spain’s 2-1 win over France in the semi-finals of Euro 2024, Sampaoli told SoFoot that Ousmane Dembele played like an Autistic patient.
The out-of-job coach said the Paris Saint Germain forward only played to shine and didn’t play to make his other teammates shine.
Coach Sampaoli made this statement after Dembele played below expectations during the competition just like most of his national team colleagues.
Recall that France only managed to score four goals in regulation time throughout their spell in the tournament, two of the goals were own goals.
In his five games in the tournament, Ousmane Dembele managed to provide just an assist and didn’t score any goal in regulation time.
“Dembele plays like an autistic. He starts the action and finishes it alone”, the 64-year-old Argentine tactician said.
“He can’t make a team-mate shine, he only knows how to shine himself.”
These comments sparked a series of backlash against Sampaoli which forced him to tender a public apology to the Frenchman via his Instagram story.
He wrote: “It was never my intention to refer to autism. I apologize to everyone. I wanted to talk about individuality.
“More than ever, you need to be careful with the words used.”
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