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Stormzy reacts to Irish paper mistaking him for Romelu Lukaku: 'I don't find this funny'

Stormzy is fuming after an Irish newspaper ran his picture for a story about professional footballer Romelu Lukaku.

Stormzy was mistaken for Lukaku (Getty)
Stormzy was mistaken for Lukaku (Getty)

Lukaku is moving from Everton FC to Manchester United in a £75million deal, but a picture of the Croydon rapper was used in the news story about the Belgian striker.

The back page article circulated on social media on Monday and finally caught Stormzy’s attention.

The ‘Shut UP’ hitmaker swiftly told his 750,000 Twitter followers that the error isn’t “funny” although he hates to be “the party pooper”.

But his comments soon triggered a debate over whether the Irish Herald had been racist.

One woman, Scharine Aryee, said: “It is a mild form of racism, yet people think it’s a joke.”

While some insisted it was a genuine mistake…

others blamed the paper’s lack of black people in its staff.

Some people pointed out that the mistake had been made before and Stormzy was aware that people think they look similar.

In the above clip of Stormzy’s guest appearance on Sunday Brunch, he laughs when the likeness is brought up and says: “Yeah, I’m not gonna lie. Every time I see it I just look at him and I think, yeah you do mate.”

The newspaper soon replied to Stormzy’s comment, with the tweet: “Sincere apologies, we don’t think it’s funny either.”

Editor of the paper, Alan Steenson, said in an apology: “Hand’s up, we got it badly wrong.

“Earlier, we made an error with a picture of Romelu Lukaku that wasn’t him. It was Stormzy. To be honest, we are totally embarrassed and want to say sorry to all involved and our readers for the error. We will keep our eye on the ball in future.”

Do you think the Herald newspaper was racist?

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