Livid Cenk Tosun gets sent off in international friendly

Everton striker Cenk Tosun was sent off for Turkey yesterday in an international friendly against Tunisia after getting involved in a shouting match with supporters. Goal claims that reports from Turkey say that his father and other family members who had traveled to watch the game had been hit by fireworks in the stands.

Immediately following that Tosun could be soon screaming at supporters, and had to be physically restrained by his teammates and training staff on the bench to prevent him from going into the crowd.

That failed to calm him down and he went on to make a throat-slitting gesture presumably at some Tunisian fans which resulted in the referee brandishing the red card just before the hour mark in the game.

Tosun, captaining his national side for the first time, had put Turkey ahead coolly dispatching a penalty in the 54th minute after being fouled in the box. But things seemed to go off the rails a few minutes after following Tunisia’s equalizer.

After the game Tosun apologized for his actions, acknowledging he had let his temper get the better of him -

“When I turned my head, I saw a quarrel with my father.

“I didn’t know the whole story. I told them that they were wrong, threatened, unworthy of me.

“Character is more important than football. It was an unbecoming gesture. I apologise. I guarantee it won’t happen again.”

The game ended up 2-2 with the Turks grabbing an injury time leveller despite playing half an hour with a man down. There was more detail in his comments published later -

“I am usually very calm, I lost the plot, a red mist descended on me. First of all I would like to apologise to the Turkish people and my teammates, when you wear the national team shirt you have to act responsibly.

“I let my teammates and myself down, we could have gone onto win the game had I not reacted like that. But I am human, I am a professional footballer but I am also human.

“I am very close with my father, he played a huge role in me getting to where I did my career. When I saw what happened in the stands I could not hold myself back.

“All I can do is apologise.

“I turned my head and saw them surrounding my dad shouting at him. I ran over to get them to leave him alone, I was irate, I threatened them to get off my dad and back down, in hindsight it was not the best way to deal with the incident.

“I was not thinking straight or acting rationally, I was really concerned for my dad. People do crazy things when they see loved ones in trouble.

“I will learn from my mistake and apologise once again.”