Serie A SLAMMED for calling Arsenal target ‘African’

Carlo Garganese

• 27 Feb 2024 10:26 GMT
• 4 min read

The official Serie A twitter account was guilty of making another embarrassing gaffe on Monday evening, this time about Arsenal transfer target Michael Kayode.

Fiorentina right back Kayode scored his first ever Serie A goal during the league match against Lazio, equalising on 61 minutes to set his side on their way to a 2-1 victory.

Seconds after Kayode scored, the official Serie A twitter account attempted to congratulate the player, tweeting: “African champion Kayode nets his first-ever Serie A goal and Fiorentina are level.”

The problem was that Kayode is not an Africa Cup of Nations champion. Indeed, the 19-year-old was born and raised in Italy and plays for the Italy Under-21 national team.

Kayode is of Nigerian descent, but quite how the official Serie A twitter account came to calling the youngster an “African champion” is anyone’s guess. Indeed, it was Ivory Coast who won the most recent Africa Cup of Nations after beating Nigeria in the final.

The tweet was deleted later in the evening but only after it was widely mocked by fans on social media.

The official Serie A English twitter account has become infamous in recent years for making countless factual and grammatical errors, with the English often barely intelligible.

This has been a great sense of frustration to Serie A fans, who believe it is amateur marketing like this that is holding back the league from progressing.

Arsenal interest in Kayode

Arsenal have been widely reported as being interested in signing Kayode and have been monitoring the Italian for a number of months.

The Gunners sent scouts to Florence to watch Kayode play in the 3-0 win over Cagliari in October, a game in which he grabbed an assist.

Kayode, 19, is a right back or right wing-back who is comfortable playing anywhere down the right hand side, including as a right winger.

He has become a regular for Fiorentina at right-back this season.

The teenager burst onto the scene during Italy Under-19s European Championship victory last summer.

He scored the winner in the final with a header against Portugal to win the trophy for Italy. He has now been moved up to the Italy Under-21 team.

Kayode is considered one of the most promising youngsters in Serie A and one of the very few teenagers in the league to get regular playing time.

Kayode recently penned a new contract in Florence until June 2028.