San Jose Earthquakes forward Danny Hoesen claims racist abuse on social media

As the San Jose Earthquakes prepared to open their MLS is Back tournament versus the Seattle Sounders on Friday, Earthquakes forward Danny Hoesen told reporters on Wednesday that he has received racist abuse on social media.

According to Reuters (h/t ESPN) and the official MLS website, Hoesen told teammates about a racist Instagram message he received this week.

"Even guys that are not of color and lived in this country for long, they even apologized and said that 'We had no idea this was going on, and what these guys are going through,'" Hoesen explained. "So I think it's good that everybody starts to stick together and address the problem."

Hoesen's father is Moroccan. His mother is Dutch.

“It's not that racism is only in America; it's in Europe, it's in Asia, it's everywhere. And so from that perspective, I'm not surprised,” the 29-year-old Hoesen said. “My opinion, it didn't change much. I'm just very curious how the country is going to handle it, how the president is going to handle it. People start to see that it's time for a change and that's going to be very interesting in the next couple of months.”

Following the killing of George Floyd, more than 170 MLS players formed the Black Players for Change coalition. Roughly 100 of them stood in solidarity on the pitch ahead of Wednesday's tournament opener: