The decision of Vinicius Júnior, Kylian Mbappé and Ibrahima Konaté not to wear the Ceuta support shirt before the match against Elche continues to generate controversy on 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.
During the minutes prior to the match between Villarreal and Betis, the Andalusian team joined, as Madrid would do in Elche a day later, Villarreal's proposal to take to the field with t-shirts in support of the population of Ceuta. They were the same shirts prepared by the AVE that Elche and Madrid would later wear at the Martínez Valero. Both the starting teams of Villarreal and Betis used them and the image caused a negative reaction in Morocco against Ez Abde, star of the green and white team and member of the African team.
The Betis striker had to delete most of his posts on social networks and received thousands of insults from Moroccan citizens, who accused him of going against his own country by 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." "Anyone who wants to use this to doubt my love for my country is free to do so, I will continue to live every day with my head held high and I will continue to represent my roots with pride and sacrifice," he concluded.
The Madrid locker room
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. Morocco is a regular vacation destination for Mbappé, while Konaté spent a few days there on vacation this summer and Vinicius visited the country as a UNESCO ambassador in 2024. Neither wanted major controversies with the Maghreb country and, according to this newspaper, with any other. They prefer to stay out of situations that have to do with possible political problems, although Mbappé himself raised his voice in the last French elections, held in the middle of Euro 2024, to show his rejection of the far-right party led by Marine Le Pen.
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.
