Serbian winger under fire after taunting Türkiye’s Kokcu for Ramadan fast

Ajax’s Serbian winger Dusan Tadic is coming under fire for making religiously-bigoted provocation against Feyenoord’s Turkish midfielder Orkun Kokcu during their Wednesday night match in Rotterdam.

The incident was only one of many scenes during Ajax’s 2-1 victory match against its bitter rival, Feyenoord.

The episode began when Feyenoord’s Muslim players, including team captain Kokcu and Oussama Idrissi from Morocco, came to the touchline to replenish themselves by eating snacks to break their fasts nearly 30 minutes after the kickoff.

As the game was paused, other Feyenoord players also drank water.

In the second half of the match, Tadic brought down Kokcu after a tackle, stepping on the Turkish player’s foot to lock horns with him.

Following the tense confrontation between the duo, Tadic made a hand gesture, which was seen as mocking Kokcu’s mid-game breaking of his Ramadan fast, turning up the heat in the field.

Kokcu, 22, a Feyenoord regular, also represents Türkiye.

Ajax was visiting Feyenoord on Wednesday, beating the hometown team 2-1 in the Dutch Cup semifinal at Rotterdam’s De Kuip Stadium.

With the victory, Ajax booked its spot for the Dutch Cup finals, but not without drawing the ire of Feyenoord and the hometown crowd.

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Tadic refused solidarity armband

An Ajax player since 2018, Tadic, 34, earlier refused to wear “Pray for Türkiye and Syria” armband for a Dutch Eredivisie match.

Under fire, he later offered his condolences to the victims on Twitter.

“The earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria have shocked me deeply. My thoughts are with the people who have lost loved ones in this tragedy, and everyone affected in any way,” Tadic said on February 14, a week after the major earthquakes.

Tadic, a former Southampton winger, is a Serbian national football team regular who represented his nation in the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

In a previous match between Ajax and Feyenoord in March called “De Klassieker” (The Classic), Kokcu had refused to shake hands with Tadic, ignoring the Serbian player before the kickoff in Amsterdam.

“De Klassieker” is one of the biggest football rivalries in the Netherlands between Ajax Amsterdam and Feyenoord of Rotterdam.

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