Manchester United star Paul Pogba tweeted in support of Zlatan Ibrahimovic following accusations of the Swede racially abusing Romelu Lukaku in Tuesday's Milan derby. The two former teammates were involved in multiple heated exchanges in the Coppa Italia quarter-final clash which was ultimately won by the Belgian striker's side.
In the altercation which dragged on right into the half-time break, both Lukaku and Ibrahimovic aimed a lot of foul words at each other. In a post-match analysis of the contents of the argument, the latter was caught in a footage saying that 'call your mother and do that voodoo s***.'
This, some believe, was in reference to a specific quote from a 2018 incident where Farhad Moshiri, a majority shareholder at Everton, claimed Lukaku had turned down an offer to extend his contract after a message from his mother who had visited a voodoo practitioner. The Belgian international subsequently denied the validity of the claim and even threatened to sue.
Zlatan has since been accused of racism although the player, following AC Milan's 2-1 defeat, apologised to his teammates for the sending off in the and reiterated in front of the whole team that he did not aim racist phrases at Lukaku. Less than 24 hours after the incident, Paul Pogba took to Twitter to squash claims of his former teammate being a racist.
In a tweet, the Manchester midfielder stated: "Zlatan... racist? He loves me too much so he's the last person I'd think of as racist! Come on, don't joke with that one!"
Zlatan... racist? He loves me too much so he's the last person I'd think of as racist! Come on, don't joke with that one!
— Paul Pogba (@paulpogba) January 27, 2021
Meanwhile, the Italian FA is yet to investigate the incident and apportion sanctions should any of the parties involved be found guilty.
