Gotham GM addresses McCall Zerboni incident after re-signing

Gotham FC general manager Yael Averbuch West addressed the club’s decision to re-sign team captain McCall Zerboni, who made a racist analogy during a postgame press conference last season.

West likes to be “as transparent as [she] can” about the club’s decision making processes, she wrote Friday on Twitter.

“Being a GM is a job full of decisions and it’s important to me that our supporters understand why and how we’re building at Gotham FC,” she wrote. “McCall has acknowledged the harm of her words last season and embraced the need for further education.

“This aligns with our desire to be a club that supports its players in learning, improving, and growing as athletes and people.”

In August, after Zerboni made a racist analogy related to Native Americans, many called out the language.

Madison Hammond, a defender for Angel City FC and the NWSL’s lone Native American player, said Zerboni’s comment “has to be acknowledged… not because I want to call out one person but because it’s indicative of how our larger culture continues to perpetuate harmful stereotypes about Native Americans and Indigenous cultures.”

While Hammond spoke with Zerboni and said she knew the Gotham FC captain “didn’t intend harm,” certain phrases are “rooted in brutal racism.”

Zerboni later issued an apology, and Gotham said it had “addressed the matter internally.”