Imagine leading such a sheltered life that you think painting yourself black, from head to toe, isn’t going to draw criticism?

We know that tipping the intelligence scale isn’t a prerequisite for becoming a professional footballer, but French superstar Antoine Griezmann doesn’t seem to read the news much.

The Atletico Madrid man is one of football’s most sought after players, voted the third best player in the world last year and rumoured to be finalising a move to Barcelona, but now he’s in the headlines for all the wrong reasons.

Get a load of this whopper:

Head to toe. Not one teammate, or one person involved in the entire process, thought to mention that this was a bad idea?

Or not one person thought to mention that he probably doesn’t want to tweet this to his 4,8 million followers?

Of course he was quickly called out for the picture, but he wasn’t exactly repentant:

STOP. DIGGING.

Eventually he realised he had a shocker, deleting the tweet and issuing an apology of sorts:

Or more accurately translated, “I admit it’s awkward from me. If I did hurt anybody, then I apologise”.

Some former players were pretty bleak, with this from Goal:

Former England striker Stan Collymore was among those to condemn the picture on social media, writing on Twitter: “A simple Google search will tell you the context of black face and where it came from. Instead of saying ‘I don’t think that’s racist’, put yourself in others shoes, read a little and then say ‘ok, I hear ya.'”

Steve Zakuani, a Congo international who played in MLS from 2009 to 2014, also criticised Griezmann’s post.

“Sad to see this from one of my favourite players,” he wrote. “But our skin is not a costume to wear for ‘fun’. People struggle through life just for having this skin so it should not be worn for entertainment purposes.

Thinking about painting yourself black for a party some time soon? Don’t.

[source:goal]