Kevin De Bruyne Shows Support For 2014 Special Olympics With Controversial Instagram Post (Photo)

Chris Wright

13th, August 2014

6 Comments

By Chris Wright

This is the doctored picture that Wolfsburg winger Kevin De Bruyne posted to his Instagram account yesterday, along with the caption: “Would you still be my fan if I looked like this?”

The image subsequently caused a bit of confusion and/or consternation among his followers, some of whom assumed that the ex-Chelsea man was merely poking fun at the disabled by photo-shopping his face to look like he had Down’s Syndrome.

However, earlier today De Bruyne posted an identical follow-up image, this time also revealing himself to be an official ambassador of the upcoming 2014 Special Olympic Games in Antwerp, adding that he was “proud” to have taken up the role “because every great performance deserves a great audience.”

You’ve got to take your hat off to the guy: that took some balls, especially considering the rate at which received moral outrage spreads on social media these days.

It certainly grabbed our attention!

(Image: kalle14/Instagram)

Posted in Bundesliga, Newsnow

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6 Comments

  1. NS says:

    Normally I’m pleasantly surprised by the tolerance showed on this website, the stances taken against racism, homophobia, etc., because they’re positions I don’t always expect from football fans.

    This, though, seems off to me. The caption, along with his tweet, suggests that people don’t watch the Special Olympics because of how the athletes look. But this really is not the case. More people don’t want the Special Olympics because the athletes are by every measure worse. That’s not to say that they’re not worth watching, or what they’re doing isn’t incredible, but as far as, say, football is concerned it’s clear that they are less talented – this is why they have fewer fans, not because of how they look (and I would argue justifiably so).

    A similar ad with him photoshopped to have darker skin, on the other hand, would make the point accurately.

  2. other dave says:

    Good on Kevin for aligning himself with the Special Olympics. In a world where everyone is offended about everything I’m happy to see him stick to his guns with this!

  3. Matt says:

    Does he not normally look like that?

  4. JLBK says:

    @NS I really can’t facepalm hard enough after reading your post. Wow. Just wow. I have chills that was so dumb.

  5. NS says:

    @JLBK Why is it so dumb? Enlighten me.

    He wrote, “Would you still be my fan if I looked like this?” Now, like I was saying, if this were a stance against racism, then it would make sense. Should a player have less fans just because he has a different skin color? No. And obviously not, since skin color has no affect on how you are as a player. You should be judged by your footballing ability, not your race.

    Should a player have less fans because he has down syndrome? Well all things equal, obviously not. But there is no such thing as an all things equal case. If you have down syndrome you’re going to be worse at football, and thus I think it’s ok that you would have less fans.

    Someone with down syndrome can have fans for other reasons, as it’s great that people with down syndrome get to play football on such a scale as the Special Olympics and it’s courageous for them to be doing so. But not as many as professionals.

  6. JLBK says:

    @NS I don’t even know why I’m doing this but here goes: You are being far too literal to grasp the point that De Bruyne is making. This sentence proves it:

    “Should a player have less fans because he has down syndrome? Well all things equal, obviously not. But there is no such thing as an all things equal case. If you have down syndrome you’re going to be worse at football, and thus I think it’s ok that you would have less fans.”

    – Captain Obvious

    The point he is making is not that footballers (or Special Olympians) with Down Syndrome are just as good at football and thus should have just as many fans as a professional athletes. His point is that the athletes that are taking part in the Special Olympics train hard and are just as passionate about sport as any athlete that goes to an Olympic Games. De Bruyne makes that clear when he aptly writes “because every great performance deserves a great audience.”

    Your point is seemingly that because they aren’t as skilled, why would special olympians get the same support. Jesus, man. Are you really this thick?

    /waste of 5 minutes

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