What should have been remembered as a moment of celebration for Argentina has developed into an uproar that threatens to tarnish their Copa America triumph and cast a shadow over Chelsea's pre-season preparations. Enzo Fernandez is at the heart of the storm, having live-streamed himself and his international team-mates gleefully belting out a racist and transphobic chant at France's expense on board the team bus in the wake of the victory over Colombia.
Fernandez has inevitably apologised for his role in the appalling incident, but the backlash suggests this will not be a case of forgive and forget. Chelsea have a proud history of Black French players who are of African descent, including club legends Marcel Desailly and N'Golo Kante, while the current squad has several members from a similar background.
Fernandez's involvement has not been well received by his team-mates, and now newly-installed head coach Enzo Maresca has a serious problem on his hands before the season has even begun.
An entirely avoidable situation, Fernandez and his team-mates bizarrely decided to indulge in a racist and transphobic chant against the French when they had just tasted victory over Colombia in the Copa America final in Miami.
The animosity between the two footballing powerhouses dates back to the 2022 World Cup final as jibes were exchanged before and after Argentina's triumph, with France talisman Kylian Mbappe the target of much of the abuse after he had questioned the level of football in South America.
For some inexplicable reason, the Albiceleste squad decided to renew hostilities with their European rivals after winning a second-consecutive Copa. Fernandez streamed an Instagram Live to his 11 million followers of himself and his jubilant team-mates beginning to sing these derogatory words, before someone abruptly and rather tellingly shouts for the video to be 'cut off' after the part about Angola: "Listen, spread the word, they play in France, but they are all from Angola, they are going to run well, they like to sleep with trans people, their mum is Nigerian, their dad is Cameroonian, but on the passport it says: French."
Both racist and transphobic, the mention of "trans people" is believed to relate to Mbappe's association with transgender model Ines Rau.
