Goalkeeping coach Zsolt Petry has been immediately put on the street by Hertha BSC, the Berlin club announced on Tuesday via the club website. The former Feyenoord player, who wore the shirt of the team from Rotterdam in the 1997/98 season, showed himself in an interview with Magyar Nemzet negative about gays and migration. Statements that were not in line with Hertha’s norms and values, the club indicated in the dismissal statement.
Petry responded to the aforementioned medium, a Hungarian right-wing conservative daily, to statements made earlier this year by fellow countryman and goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi of RB Leipzig about homophobia. “I have lived abroad for over fourteen years and I have met a lot of different people,” Gulacsi began his talk about gay acceptance. “Both in my personal life and at work. People of different nationalities, cultures, religions and philosophies of life. The most important thing is love and tolerance for others. Everyone has the right to equality.”
Petry couldn’t agree with those words. The goalkeeper coach says he does not understand why his Hungarian compatriot is committed to the acceptance of homosexuals, transvestites and people with different gender identities. “I don’t understand how Europe can morally sink as low as it is now,” Petry shed light on the subject. “Europe is a Christian continent. I don’t like the moral decline that is inundating the continent. But if you don’t like migration, you are immediately a racist for liberals.”
Hertha got wind of the statements made by Petry and decided to fire the goalkeeper coach. “Hertha BSC has it Charter of Diversity signed and promotes active values such as diversity and tolerance as an association, because these values are important to us “, can be read on the website of the club.” The statements made do not correspond to the values that apply at our club, “said Carsten Schmidt, Chairman of the Board of Directors. “I stress that I am neither homophobic nor a xenophobia,” said Petry in a comment. “I also regret my statements about immigration policy and I apologize to all those who have sought refuge here and whom I have offended by doing so.”
Hungary is known as a country where gay acceptance does not go as far as in other European countries. In December 2020, the Hungarian Parliament passed a law banning the adoption of children by same-sex couples. Previously, gay couples could adopt if one of the partners adopted a child as a single parent. Human rights organization Amnesty International called the amendment a new attack on the Hungarian non-heterogeneous community and spoke of a black day for human rights at the time.