Kylian Mbappé has broken his silence after the controversy generated by the fact that he, Vinicius and Konaté did not wear the message of support for Ceuta during the moments before Elche - Real Madrid. "It was a decision by the clubs to wear the shirt. We players had to wear it. The first thing I want to say is that I have all the solidarity with Ceuta and with all the victims. Because before being a player, I am human. But 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," the Frenchman said in a statement to AS.
The Frenchman insisted that "it was a 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. But I also wanted to have a thought for all the people who suffer, because in the end I am human," he said.
Mbappé has claimed to be "a boy who wants the best for the world we have" and has repeated that "I intend to give a message of positivity and peace, and I hope this is resolved quickly."
The decision not to wear the shirt in support of Ceuta continues to generate controversy at a social and political level in Spain. The three footballers refused to show the motto of the tribute: "We are all mackerels. Ceuta and the Knights of the Sea." A garment prepared by the Valencia Business Association (AVE), headed by the former president of Madrid Vicente Boluda, for the home matches of the four clubs in the Valencian Community: Levante, Villarreal, Elche and Valencia. But why this rejection by the players when Real Madrid, their club, had accepted the proposal? Well, you have to rewind 24 hours.
Ez Abde had to delete most of his social media posts and received thousands of insults from Moroccan citizens for wearing the shirt supporting Ceuta. But far from repenting, Abde defended his position, claiming that it was "of a social nature in support of a population and its inhabitants." "At no time has the shirt referring to the people of Ceuta been used with a political objective or contempt towards my people, the Moroccan people," he added in a statement on his social networks, insisting that "this is not an apology to anyone."
That publication by Abde and all the controversy generated by the shirt reached the Madrid locker room. Brahim Díaz is Abde's teammate in the Moroccan national team and Achraf Hakimi, captain of the Maghreb team, is one of Mbappé's best friends. And everyone, like any young person today, is aware of what is happening on social networks and especially everything that has to do with football. They were aware of the reactions generated in Morocco by Abde's image.
That is why when, after the warm-up at the Martínez Valero, Elche informed Madrid of the initiative, it accepted and the white team's staff handed out the shirts to the players, several had doubts about what to do. And three of them, Mbappé, Vinicius and Konaté, decided to fold the shirts at the level of the message so that it could not be seen, thus avoiding criticism from Morocco. You could only read "we are all", without the reference to "mackerels", the nickname by which the inhabitants of Ceuta are known. As this newspaper has learned, the players considered that the shirt had a political charge and refused to take a position on the situation.
Once the controversy arose over the image of the players, Madrid revealed that within the locker room there are different "beliefs, sensitivities, opinions and visions of reality", respecting the decision of its players not to accompany the tribute. The club did not want to impose its vision on the issue, and internally recalled that in the Levante-Barcelona match last weekend, the culé squad did not join the action of the granota team, which went to the Ciutat de Valencia with t-shirts in support of Ceuta.
