England Forward Jadon Sancho celebrated the first of his second-half hat-trick for Borussia Dortmund in its 6-1 massacre over SC Paderborn on Sunday by displaying a “Justice for George Floyd” T-shirt.
The win over the Bundesliga bottom-table club kept Dortmund’s slender title hopes alive, but it was Sancho’s performance and his personal protest at the death of Floyd which proved the main talking point.
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Dortmund was leading 1-0 through a timely placed shot from Thorgan Hazard when Sancho grabbed his first goal since the restart of the Bundesliga, quickly peeling off his team shirt to reveal the message, which served him a yellow card from the referee.
After the game, Sancho took to social media to reflect on the “bittersweet moment” of his first career hat-trick.
“We shouldn’t fear speaking out for what’s right, we have to come together as one & fight for justice. We are stronger together!,” he posted.
His teammate Achraf Hakimi also pulled up his shirt to display an undershirt bearing the same words after scoring Dortmund’s fourth.
They joined other Bundesliga stars protesting the death of Floyd, 46, who died in Minneapolis during an arrest by a police officer, who pinned him to the ground for several minutes by kneeling on his neck.
Earlier Sunday, French striker Marcus Thuram scored twice in Borussia Moenchengladbach’s 4-1 win over Union Berlin and took to the knee in a tribute to the Black Lives Matter movement.
Saturday saw Schalke’s US midfielder Weston McKennie sporting an armband bearing the words “Justice for George” during his side’s home defeat to Werder Bremen.
The 20-year-old Sancho is among the hottest properties in world football, taking his tally to 17 goals and 16 assists for the season and his hat-trick was the the first by an English player in a major European league for 31 years.
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