Sickening graffiti has been painted on an Ezgjan Alioski mural after being linked with a move to Turkish outfit Galatasaray.
A mural honouring the player has been vandalised following reports that the left-back is set to wave goodbye to the Premier League club.
Football Insider this week revealed that the 29-year-old has agreed a pre-contract with Galatasaray with his deal at Leeds due to expire in the summer.
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Now as most of us may recall, in 2000, Leeds fans Kevin Speight and Christopher Loftus were stabbed to death by Galatasaray fans ahead of the two sides’ UEFA Cup semi-final meeting in Istanbul.
There is still bad blood between both fanbases despite the incident happening 21 years ago, and now the hatred has flared up again.
Alioski has been loved by Leeds fans during his time with the club, however if this deal goes through, he would be less than a popular figure if he did make the move.
In response to the speculation linking the North Macedonia international, someone has painted sickening graffiti on an Alioski mural in Leeds.
One person, who remained anonymous, uploaded the photo to Twitter with the caption: “Rat.”
The graffiti read: “Die fk Gala.”
However since publishing it onto the worldwide web, it’s been deleted, though was up long enough for fans to get screen grabs of it.
Fan site MOTLeedsNews gave their reaction to seeing sickening graffiti painted on the Alioski mural after being linked with the Galatasaray move.
They wrote: “While the memories of Kevin and Chris will live on through Leeds United and Galatasaray are not exactly a club we’d like to see anyone at Elland Road associating themselves with, this reaction is disgusting.
“Not only does it ruin Andy McVeigh’s brilliant street art, but it also sends out a very horrible message to Alioski, who has done nothing but his best for Leeds.
“If he wants to move on in the summer then we’re not going to hold it against him.
“If he wants to join Galatasaray, while we’d rather he went elsewhere to avoid the controversy, we cannot hold it against him because this is about something that happened a long time ago – and perhaps before a lot of young Leeds fans were born.
“Harry Kewell made himself a hate figure among Leeds fans when he joined Galatasaray in 2008. But that was different as he was someone who played for the Whites when that happened and had been at the Yorkshire club for a very long time.
“Alioski has been with us since 2017 and the fact he’s from North Macedonia and spent most of his career playing in Switzerland suggests he might not even know about what happened in 2000.
“Hopefully someone fixes that mural as soon as possible because it’s absolutely horrible to see.”
Painted this for our ‘unique’ Macedonian machine. ( on Lowfields Road.)
Thought it’d be fun to take selfie with the kids (or “refreshed” adults) & post with a reason why you love him. Me? Cos he thought it perfectly normal to bite Pablo’s stomach during a match! #lufc
#alioski pic.twitter.com/gOQgjXxsQj— Andy McVeigh (@pantsdanny) January 8, 2020
FAN REACTION:
@Grimbers78: Proud of that are you? Alioski had nothing to do with Kevin and Chris. As a club, Leeds will always honor and keep their memory alive. A player that had no prior with us and was not even involved with that team has a right to go wherever he can get a deal. Mindless vandalism
@KatieLUFC: Child
@jordan_naylor1: Good to see van gough is still active 👏🏻
@VidukaEra: Why would u do this to him even though nothings been confirmed? And even if it was why death. Just not on at all goes without saying
@rorylufc: It’s crazy, to treat our own player like this too. Not even confirmed yet and people are already wishing death upon him, it’s disgusting. He was one of them who took us up last season and deserves to leave if he wishes, even if it is to them.
@MaynardM: This guy obviously believes so much in what he’s done here that he’s displaying it from brand new anonymous account, like any good coward would.
@timmsy_ks: Would be a shame if someone asked @WestYorksPolice to look into your mindless vandalism of someone’s public artwork wouldn’t it..
@skirmishmonkey: Not only that, but he made a death threat as well.
@stevemaher34: Absolute prick no need at all
@JingleN64: You were Expecting a wave of “Lol that’s gr8 m8” but instead you’re met with rational thinking. How embarrassing for you.
@Segundo_VoIante: Disgusting behaviour.
@GlynHansford: Grow up
@DavidKershaw7: Completely embarrassing, that was from an era myself and many lived through which was shocking and upsetting but now we don’t judge on the past we judge on the present and if Alioski wants his move and last night contract we thank him for his efforts and wish him luck #lufc
@JohnmjtJt1919: Ffs brainless
@sazzybm: What the hell is wrong with you!!! 😠😠😠😠 clearly not a Leeds fan. Why would you destroy @pantsdanny lovely art!!! Get a life
@daverowson: That is as bad as the Turks posting their crap there is no need just stop it. Who does that help ? He should not go there end of but have some dignity.
@Mitz_KE: Useless dimwit @lufc2018283. Alioski has given his absolute best playing for us, contributed well to our promotion to EPL after 16yrs. Given fans fantastic moments, goals, assists, humour. Clueless people like you should stick to video games or be in prison. #lufc
@Azzalufc4life: Get a fucking grip will you.
@Conor_Smithy: So am I correct. That this simpleton is admitting to doing this graffiti which is a potential hate crime? Surely the police can run a check on the IP address where this was tweeted from. Reported
@TheImWilson: Gjanni has been with us for 4 years. Nothing but 100% effort and dedication to the club, part of the team to get us up. This is crossing the line and then some. Footballs have short careers and this is NOT helping anyone. What has this achieved?
@Yorkshire77: That’s just fucking stupid
@CraigPridmore: Wanker.
— DKS💙💛 (@deankshaw) March 24, 2021
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