The Nigerian-German Dennis Aogo, has forgiven former Germany goalkeeper Jens Lehmann for a public racist text message that he sent to the player.
Jens Lehmann has now been removed from the Bundesliga Club Hertha Berlin’s supervisory board on Wednesday due to this behaviour.
Dennis Aogo published a screenshot of Lehmann’s WhatsApp message asking whether Aogo was “actually your quota Black person.” Aogo, a former Germany player, was working for broadcaster Sky covering the Champions League semifinal game between Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday.
“WOW are you serious?” Aogo wrote on Instagram. “This message was probably not meant for me.”
Lehmann said on Twitter that he apologised to Dennis Aogo for the “impression” given by the message. He added that Aogo was “knowledgeable” in his work as a TV analyst and said he raised Sky’s share or “quota” of the ratings.
The former German payer did not want to stir up too much trouble and accepted the thin apology.
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“I spoke to him on the phone, twice today. And I want to officially say again: I accept his apology,” Aogo said Instagram and emphasized: “Everyone makes mistakes. Everyone deserves a second chance. And I don’t think it’s right that everyone pounces on him now.”
“I didn’t like what he wrote. I didn’t like the wording either. I also find that somewhat disrespectful because you don’t write something like that – regardless of who the message is addressed to was. “
Lehmann has also been a Sky analyst but will no longer appear on its coverage of games, Sky Germany executive vice president for sports Charly Classen said on Wednesday.
A spokesman for Hertha Investor Lars Windhorst, Andreas Fritzenkötter, told the dpa that Lehmann was no longer an adviser to Windhorts or his company’s representative on the supervisory board due to the way he expressed himself in a racist way.
“Such statements do not reflect in any way the values that Hertha BSC stands for and actively campaigns for,” club president Werner Gegenbauer said. “Hertha BSC distances itself from any form of racism.”
Source: dpa, Dennis Aogo IG,