Nestory Irankunda and the Socceroos were competing at the World Cup when Pauline Hanson made her comments about multiculturalism. (Getty Images: Stu Forster)
Socceroo Nestory Irankunda says his fellow players were upset by One Nation leader Pauline Hanson's comments on multiculturalism during the World Cup.
Fellow Socceroo Awer Mabil previously said the comments had not distracted the team from the tournament.
Senator Hanson later said the Socceroos represented her vision of a monocultural Australia.
Socceroos star winger Nestory Irankunda says One Nation leader Pauline Hanson's comments on multiculturalism upset many of the players during the recent World Cup.
The Australian team was competing at the tournament in North America in June when Ms Hanson made a speech at the National Press Club saying Australia should end its policy of multiculturalism in favour of a monoculture.
"It really did upset me and it upset a lot of the other boys to see things and hear things like that," Irankunda said.
Irankunda, who is one of several Socceroos players from a refugee background, told 702 ABC Sydney while he tried to stay off social media it was hard to avoid the senator's comments.
"There can be some people who do the wrong thing but that doesn't mean that's all of us," he said.
"There's people like me, and Awer [Mabil], Mohamed Touré that go out there. There's a lot of boys like us that go out there and do the right thing.
"I don't like how they try and put us in the whole same category as the other people who do bad."
Irankunda was born in a refugee camp in Tanzania in 2006 to Burundian parents who fled the nation's civil war. He came to Australia when he was three months old.
Irankunda was speaking with presenter Hamish Macdonald on 702 ABC Sydney just days after moving from English Championship club Watford to Portuguese side Sporting CP for an undisclosed fee reported to be in the region of $26 million.
The footballer said he probably wouldn't like to speak with the One Nation senator as he was still upset by the comments and "some of the things she said in the past".
"I'm not someone that likes to jump into controversial things or this political stuff. But I mean, you know, you never know," Irankunda said.
