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The Galaxy released midfielder Aleksandar Katai on Friday, two days after the team became aware of inflammatory messages posted on a social media account belonging to his wife.
Tea Katai's posts, which have been taken down, appeared to make light of the protests and looting that occurred in the wake of George Floyd's death while in police custody last week in Minneapolis. The team made the decision to release Katai after meeting with him following a training session Thursday.
"We believe strongly that we're a club that represents our staff, represents our players, represents our fans and our community," team president Chris Klein said. "The decision, in that respect, was not a difficult one. We have to hold to those values. This is not a soccer decision."
The first of Tea Katai's posts was a screenshot from a video showing two New York City police officers driving their vehicles through a crowd of demonstrators with a caption, in Serbian, that translates as "kill the s—s!" The second showed an apparent looter with boxes of Nike shoes below English-language text reading "Black Nikes Matter." The Associated Press reported Tea Katai also wrote another post in Serbian that described the protesters as "disgusting cattle."
After the Galaxy released a statement condemning the messages Wednesday, Katai placed a four-paragraph apology on Instagram, calling his wife's posts "unacceptable" and adding that "these views are not ones that I share and are not tolerated in my family."