I disagree, he's an employee of the club, not the government.
Most EU stadiums are also tax-payer funded (some clubs even are, with dubious constructions) or some clubs just refuse to pay taxes (spanish clubs are renowned for this), still club sports are not tied into nationalism and protesting a flag is his own business, as he's employed by a club / company, not the government.
Would he burn a club flag for the club he's playing he'd be outta there though.
No...My point is intertwining nationalism and sports on club level is silly.
Disregarding your employer as such would get you fired from most jobs anyway.
You people love your clubs.
This is a severe understatement; football is religion.
Keep in mind here regionalism vs nationalism. Unlike the US, EU clubs don't move around, are tied deeply into their region due to history, youth academies, employee's etc etc. Until the 60's the teams only had local players, and still actively train their own local youth. The clubs represent cities, regions or even neighborhoods.
Would you put your country over your city/neighborhood, that would be silly, right?
We don't really have a difference between club and national games. All sports are basically national if they have a tax-payer funded stadium (ie - almost all of football and baseball). A player protesting the country while making tens of millions of dollars and kneeling in a tax payer funded stadium is a slap in the face