German soccer team will not sign Israeli player due to fan opposition

On Monday, the club had said that “judging people based on their Wikipedia article” is “not in line with our values.”

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

German soccer team Fortuna Düsseldorf announced Tuesday that it had decided not to sign an Israeli player due to fan opposition, despite defending its plan just the previous day.

The second-division club had been in serious negotiations with Israeli national team striker Shon Weissman, who has been playing for Granada CF in Spain’s La Liga, also a second-division team.

Although Fortuna had “looked into [the purchase of] Shon Weissman in great detail,” it “ultimately decided not to pursue a signing,” the team said on its social media accounts.

The deal was reportedly worth €500,000.

When reports of the incipient move hit the media, part of Fortuna’s fan base slammed corporate headquarters due to Weissman’s public support for his home country.

Days after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of Israel in which the terrorists massacred 1,200 people, the vast majority of them civilians, and kidnapped 251, including women and children, Weissman had called on social media to “wipe Gaza off the map.”

He later deleted this post as well as others on the subject, but his comments led to fans calling him an “extremist” and signing an online petition against his arrival.

The German team’s decision marked a quick turnabout from the day before, when a club official had reacted defensively to a flood of critical fans pointing to a quote Weissman had posted from his Wikipedia page.

“What’s going on here? I’m getting one notification after another after work,” the official wrote on X. “Judging people you don’t know based on their Wikipedia article? That’s not in line with our values.”

Many fans reacted positively to this response, saying that there should be a clear separation made between politics and soccer.

Weissman accepted the decision while slamming those who called him a hate-monger without looking at the whole picture.

Calling himself “a son of a nation still grieving from the horrors of October 7” on Instagram, he wrote, “That black day, when entire families were murdered, kidnapped and brutalized, remains an open wound for me. As a person, as an Israeli and as an athlete representing my country.”

“While I accept all criticism,” he added, “it pains me that the full context was not considered … No outsider can ever truly understand what we have been through.”

“It is both possible and necessary to oppose harm to innocent people on both sides,” he also wrote. “But I won’t allow myself to be painted as someone who promoted hate with 3 likes and 1 comment that was deleted instantly.”

Weissman proclaimed his patriotism loudly and clearly, writing both that “a person will always stand with their country, no matter what,” and “I will continue to proudly carry the Israeli flag wherever I play.”