MADRID.- The forward of the Real Madrid, Kylian Mbappéexpressed this Wednesday “all solidarity with Ceuta“, but he added that his decision not to wear a shirt in support of the autonomous city was so as not to prioritize suffering.
“The first thing I want to say is that I have complete solidarity with Ceuta and with all the victims because before being a player, I am human,” said Mbappé in a statement to the newspaper AS.
The Frenchman and his companions Vinicius and Ibrahima Konaté They are at the center of the controversy after half putting on a shirt supporting Ceuta before the match against the Elche on Tuesday.
The three left them rolled up at chest height, preventing the motto “We are all mackerels (nickname of the inhabitants of Ceuta)” from being fully read.
Ceuta, Spanish enclave in the north of Africa, suffered on July 30 and 31 a massive influx of tens of thousands of immigrants from Morocco.
In this massive entry, 80 people also lost their lives, according to a Spanish commission of forensic specialists.
Most of the migrants later returned, but several thousand remained in Ceuta, where the situation has been deteriorating, giving rise to tensions and almost daily demonstrations by the local population, demanding a return to normality.
“I also wanted to have a gesture and a thought for all the immigrants who have lost their lives and who are also in difficult conditions,” Mbappé told AS.
“Difficult position”
“It was not an easy, difficult position, because in the end people may think that I am against the people of Ceuta, but no, absolutely not. I have nothing against them and I support them 100% with my thoughts on them,” he added.
“But I also wanted to have a thought for all the people who suffer, because in the end I am human and I don’t want to prioritize suffering,” Mbappé explained.
“I intend to give a message of positivity and peace, and I hope that all this is resolved quickly,” he concluded.
Before, the president of LaLiga, Javier Tebashad criticized the action of the three players.
“Bad, bad. They are institutional acts, they are club acts, they are not personal acts where you have to express your personal opinion,” Tebas told several media after being asked what he thought of that action.
The president of LaLiga confirmed that the initiative of this shirt launched by the business association of the region of Valencia was authorized by the competition, while denying that it was a matter of “political demands.”
Tebas recalled that the competition authorizes the act, but then it is the teams that decide what to do.
He Elche-Real Madrid It was the third game where this initiative was carried out after the Levante-Barcelona from last weekend, where only the Levant He came out with the shirt, Villarreal-Betis on Monday, in which both teams came out with her, and the Elche-Real Madrid.
“Lack of information”
Teams and matches played outside the Valencia region are not wearing that jersey at the start of matches.
“I think it is a lack of information for teammates to know what they are going to do,” considered the president of the AFE soccer players union. David Aganzoin statements to the media.
“The only thing I ask is that they coordinate, talk to the players and the message will come out and everything will come out in conditions. It is a matter of coordination, it is a matter of information and logically of freedom of expression,” Aganzo added.
On Tuesday, the Moroccan international of Betis, Abde Ezzalzouli, He had to defend himself from criticism from his country for wearing the shirt before the game against Villarreal.
Abde recalled that the t-shirt did not have “a political objective or one of contempt” for the Moroccan people, but rather a “social objective in support of a population and its inhabitants – regardless of their nationality – who are experiencing a complicated situation.”
