Former National Women’s Soccer League star Stefany Ferrer Van Ginkel, a Brazilian midfielder, has provoked outrage after she was caught on camera mimicking a Nazi salute while driving past a pro-Israel demonstration in California in a viral video
The StopAntiSemitism group posted the video on Monday.
In videos posted on social media, she can be seen riding in the passenger seat of a car being driven by her boyfriend, Samim Haydari, a player for the United City Football Club, in Beverly Hills.
Stefany Ferrer Van Ginkel gives Nazi salute at LA pro-Israel rally, video goes viral
Former professional US National Women’s Soccer League player Stefany Ferrer Van Ginkel flashes Nazi salute at pro-Israel protesters.
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The soccer player, whose most recent team was NWSL team Angel City a year ago, apologised on social media to Haydari. Still, their social media accounts have been deactivated, and the apology video has since been removed.
The pair were seen driving around in Beverly Hills with Ferrer Van Ginkel’s window down, facing demonstrators holding signs demanding the release of captives held in Gaza following the October 7 Hamas attack. In the video, Ferrer Van Ginkel can be seen making the gesture at the demonstrators during Sunday night’s march while the driver and onlookers yell, “Shame on you!” at her and the other protestors.
The Angel City Football Club condemned the act
The Angel City Football Club condemned Ferrer Van Ginkel’s recent actions and statements and said that she has not been affiliated with the club since November 2022 in a statement sent to X, formerly Twitter, amid mounting indignation.
He knows that they have approached the situation with hate and made it worse with our actions, Haydari reportedly stated in his apologies. They behaved like kids. All they can do is grow as people and take something away from this since they are unable to alter the past.
It is reported that Ferrer Van Ginkel did not speak in the footage
The 25-year-old Brazilian is single and without a team at the moment. He played for Mexican top-division team Tigres and Spanish club Espanyol in addition to spending a season with Angel City.
She appeared in the second season of “Ultimate Goal,” a program on BT Sport that sought to discover the next big names in women’s basketball, in 2021. Through the program, women living all around Europe were able to train as full-time female football players and compete in an effort to get the attention of scouts. In 2022, she signed with Angel City, a team based in Los Angeles.