An antisemitic mural in Rotterdam attacking professional soccer player Steven Berghuis. Photo: courtesy of CIDI.

Dutch police have launched a criminal investigation into a mural in Rotterdam that vilified a top professional soccer player by portraying him as a Jew in concentration camp uniform.

The mural appeared following the news earlier this week that Steven Berghuis, who also plays for the Dutch national team, was leaving Rotterdam side Feyenoord for their bitter Amsterdam-based rivals, Ajax — a side with no formal ties to the Dutch Jewish community, but with a cluster of fans who style themselves as “Joden” (“Jews”) and wave Israeli flags at matches, often meeting with antisemitic abuse from opposing supporters.

Berghuis was depicted wearing a concentration camp uniform marked with a “Judenstern,” or “Jews’ Star.” He was also shown wearing a kippah and with an outlandishly large “Jewish” nose.

A slogan alongside the drawing declared, “Jews always run away.”

Neither the police nor the Public Prosecution Service have yet identified the culprits behind the mural.

Meanwhile, the official Feyenoord supporters association condemned the mural as “tasteless.”

“If you have to explain why this is tasteless, then it actually makes no sense anymore,” Remco Ravenhorst, chair of the  SV De Feijenoorder association, stated.

Representatives of the club have not apologized for the mural, claiming that they have “no idea who is doing this and therefore not to what extent they really have a relationship with the club.” The Dutch Jewish organization CIDI had earlier urged Feyenoord’s management, given “the seriousness of this mural … to apologize to anyone who has been hurt by this image.”