Miguel Layún is a star defender for the Mexican national soccer team. He also plays professionally for FC Porto, a club out of Portugal. On Saturday, Layún posted this tweet from his account:
Qué triste que el @ToysRUs en Gaia tenga este tipo de decoración. Optamos por salir cuando vimos esta "broma". ✋? pic.twitter.com/Nxo5MrIStV
— Miguel Layun (@Miguel_layun) February 25, 2017
The tweet says the following in English: “Sad to see this type of decoration at the ToysRUs in Gaia [Vila Nova de Gaia is a city directly to the south of Porto]. We chose to leave after seeing this ‘joke.'”
Layún’s photo showed a toy wall with signs that read “Mexico” and “USA.”
As you might imagine, the tweet got some attention, to the point that the New Jersey-based @ToysRUs has been playing damage control ever since Layún’s tweet got global attention:
@Miguel_layun Please know that this is not who we are and we have immediately contacted the store management in Portugal to address this
— ToysRUs (@ToysRUs) February 25, 2017
@Miguel_layun
Our deepest apologies for this offensive display. It's been removed & the employees will be dealt with appropriately.— ToysRUs (@ToysRUs) February 25, 2017
@MiiiltonGomez @CNN Deepest apologies for this offensive display.It's been removed,we'll address the lack of sensitivity shown by this team.
— ToysRUs (@ToysRUs) February 26, 2017
@DgurroGurrola @latimes @LatinoUSA @NPR @nytimes We sincerely apologize for this highly offensive display. It has been removed.
— ToysRUs (@ToysRUs) February 26, 2017
After being informed that the Gaia store had removed the display, Layún tweeted a video in Spanish where he hoped that no one lost their job over this tweet, and he thanked ToysRUs for their quick response in removing the wall:
De verdad solo pido que no haya ninguna pérdida de trabajo con lo ocurrido hoy. Gracias @ToysRUs pic.twitter.com/iVIe5dtH9b
— Miguel Layun (@Miguel_layun) February 25, 2017
“The idea is to communicate respect,” Layún said in Spanish. “To communicate that it is a very touchy topic that is affecting and generating difficult problems for many people. This is not a topic that people should play around with. I hope that it helps to create more awareness about it. That was the only true motive. I hope that it helped serve notice and that we keep supporting because the last thing we need is this world is more inciting of violence. That was all I wanted to do with my message.”
