Hwang Hee-chan subjected to vile 'Jackie Chan' insult during Wolves friendly with Como - but Serie A club defend player responsible in shocking statement

Premier League outfit Wolves took in a pre-season date with Serie A newcomers Como – who have ex-Arsenal and Chelsea star Cesc Fabregas at the helm – as they begin to ready themselves for the 2024-25 campaign.

The game in question was halted midway through the first half when Daniel Podence swung a punch at a Como defender. He was shown a straight red card, but claimed to be defending team-mate Hwang from discriminatory remarks that were aimed in his direction.

Wolves boss Gary O’Neil said afterwards: “Channy heard a racist remark which is really disappointing. I spoke to Channy about it, checked whether he wanted to take the team off or come off himself, but he was keen the team carried on and got the work they needed. It’s really disappointing that it happened, that we have to talk about it and that it impacted the game – not ideal and things like that shouldn’t be around. He’s really disappointed, of course, and understandably. I’m proud of the fact that he wanted to carry on and put his team first in a difficult moment for him. He knew it was a pre-season trip and he wanted the lads to work and get their minutes, even though he’d suffered something hugely offensive. Channy will be OK, he’ll get our full support and we’ll pick him up in the morning and make sure he’s OK. It’s a together group. Of course, there’s ways to handle that and we don’t want to leave ourselves short on the pitch, but it’s a together group. We’ve worked really hard this week, had a good week, had some great moments in the game, but it’s an unfortunate incident we have to deal with and have to discuss when, ideally, we’d be talking about the game. Of course, when an incident like that happens in a game, it’s the first thing we discuss.”

Como have now responded to the allegations in a statement of their own, which reads: “Our club does not tolerate racism and condemns all forms of it in the strongest possible way. We spoke to the defender in question to understand what was said. He has told us the comment he made, to his co-defender, was ‘ignore him, he thinks he’s Jackie Chan’. Having spoken to our player at length, we are confident this was in reference to the player’s name, and to the constant reference of ‘Channy’ made by his own team-mates on the pitch. As far as our club is concerned our player did not say anything in a derogatory manner. We are disappointed that the reaction of certain Wolves players has seen the incident blown out of proportion.”

The game in question finished in a 1-0 win for Wolves, with Rayan Ait-Nouri scoring the only goal. South Korean international forward Hwang enjoyed his best season for the club in 2023-24, with the target found on 13 occasions through 31 appearances in all competitions.