KINGSTON, Jamaica — Edinson Cavani, the Paris Saint-Germain striker, today apologised to Jamaica and Jamaicans after mistakenly saying that the Reggae Boyz are an African team.

Jamaica are Uruguay’s first opponents in the Copa America football competition to kick off this Saturday

Cavani was asked what he thought of Uruguay’s opponents. He replied saying: “As any other African team, Jamaica are going to be strong.”

Realising the error an apology was quickly tweeted from his official Twitter account.

“First I want to apologise to Jamaica and its people,” he wrote.

“I wanted to make a comparison between similar styles and playing characteristics between Jamaican national team and those of African sides, but honestly I only put across half that thought and it came out sounding awful.

“In any case, I’d like to publicly ask for forgiveness, and I hope my mistake will be taken with humour rather than offence.”

The Copa America competition begins tonight.

See tweet below: