Europe is buzzing today over the revelation that a Nazi toy soldier being produced in Hong Kong looks like Bastian Schweinsteiger, the German soccer legend who is now playing for Manchester United. Papers from the U.K. to the Czech Republic are reporting on the resemblance of the Nazi toy, named Bastian, to the 31-year-old midfielder.
This story is so hot right now in Germany that Bild, the most recognized German sports site on the Internet, has it’s Nazi toy coverage behind a paywall. The Daily Mail is reporting that DiD, the Chinese company behind the Bastian toy, says this situation is a coincidence and that “The figure is a member of a Wehrmacht supply unit, a so-called “kitchen boy.”
Still,Schweinsteiger’s camp isn’t accepting that answer.
“This is a clear violation of Schweinsteiger’s personality rights,” the media lawyer Ulrich Amelung was quoted as saying by Bild. “To see him as a swastika-bearing Wehrmacht soldier also constitutes a gross defamation and insult.”
DiD Corporation makes a variety of toys from U.S. military, LAPD, Martin Luther King Jr., Winston Churchill and even Putin figurines, according to it Facebook.
Bastian the toy wearing a Nazi insignia
Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images
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