A promotional post about U.S. women’s national team midfielder Korbin Albert has sparked a mixed reaction amid previous posts that have been deemed homophobic and transphobic.
The post on the official USWNT account, seemingly unmotivated by anything Albert did on the court Saturday, showed the midfielder holding the ball and biting into her gold medal.
Albert’s previous posts have divided fans, with many people unwilling to accept the midfielder due to her past conduct.
The (now deleted) posts Albert shared were reposts from a Christian worship space discussing how being gay and “feeling transgender” is wrong.
Albert, considered a rising star within the women’s national team, has posted similar content on her profile before, including a now-deleted post on her TikTok account from the Fourth of July weekend that featured her family and said “their pronouns are USA.”
A promotional post about Korbin Albert sparked backlash from USWNT fans
The post came from the team’s official account and went up on Saturday afternoon.
Previously, she also liked a post on Instagram that was revealed via a screenshot of a meme that read, “God takes time off to perform miracles to make sure Megan Rapinoe sprains her ankle in her last game.”
Rapinoe tore her Achilles tendon in the third minute of the 2023 NWSL Championship match and watched her team, OL Reign, lose to Gotham FC on penalty kicks.
USWNT coach Emma Hayes has previously publicly defended Albert’s selection for the Olympic team and Albert has apologized for her posts, admitting they were “sensitive and hurtful.”
But fans have demanded to see a change in Albert that has yet to be fully revealed publicly.
That’s why many are still against her after the apology and it has given rise to many of the responses seen on Saturday afternoon.
“I can’t even begin to support her until she shows her work in unlearning the bigoted views she holds,” one user wrote on Twitter.
“She has shown absolutely no work,” a second user posted. “Every second that passes without her actually addressing the harm raises more questions about the moral center of this team. Every second compounds the insult and injury. And that’s before we can ‘scratch a transphobic bleeding racist.'”
“Congrats on normalizing hate and intolerance,” another wrote in response. “Remember when she also celebrated and mocked a serious injury to one of the most legendary players on this team? Yeeeees. Kick this piece of trash off the US Women’s National Team. Disgraceful.”
Most of the responses and comments were negative after Albert’s previous posts.
“Everyone can try all they want. We don’t like her, she’s a bigot. And every time she comes out, it gets annoying. She’s not even that good,” another person posted.
“Look at the US women’s national team promoting a player who thinks gay people should go through conversion therapy and thinks it’s funny that her teammates are getting hurt,” said another.
But there were also a few (admittedly far fewer) posts in support of Albert following this tweet.
“The responses and quotes are disgusting. People should be given the same freedom to learn and grow as the rest of us who aren’t under a microscope,” one person wrote.
Another said: “Haters gonna hate, but she provided the game-winning assist.”
Other publications also call Albert the goat or a ‘future (goat emoji)’.
Albert had a strong showing at the Olympics, scoring a goal against Australia and his long pass to Mallory Swanson led to the gold medal goal against Brazil.
