France star Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 on Monday condemned a Paraguayan senator over racist remarks she made following Paraguay\u2019s loss to France in the round of 16 at the World Cup.<\/p>\n
Mbapp\u00e9 called Celeste Amarilla, a senator from Paraguay\u2019s Liberal Radical Party, a \u201cdespicable woman\u201d who was \u201cunworthy\u201d of serving in Paraguay’s Congress.<\/p>\n
\u201cThrough your recklessness and your brazen racism, the entire world has already forgotten the journey and the historic effort that your players accomplished during this World Cup,\u201d Mbapp\u00e9 wrote on X.<\/p>\n
Amarilla posted a series of racist comments on X after Mbapp\u00e9 converted the winning penalty in France\u2019s victory over Paraguay on Saturday, mocking the French captain\u2019s origins, upbringing, education and appearance. France advanced to the quarterfinals, where it will face Morocco on Thursday.<\/p>\n
The Paraguayan government released a statement Monday afternoon condemning Amarilla\u2019s remarks as \u201ccontrary to the values and principles that inspire peaceful coexistence and respect for human dignity that our country promotes.\u201d It added that the senator\u2019s comments do not represent either the Paraguayan government or the Paraguayan people.<\/p>\n
The French Football Federation on Monday denounced Amarilla\u2019s comments as \u201cutterly abhorrent\u201d and \u201cunacceptable,\u201d adding that it would refer the matter to prosecutors.<\/p>\n
France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, and sports minister Marina Ferrari voiced support for the national team\u2019s captain.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy targeting Kylian Mbapp\u00e9, the senator is attacking everything our captain embodies and everything our country stands for: liberty, equality and fraternity,\u201d Ferrari wrote on X.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne more goal for Kylian Mbapp\u00e9. This time against racism,\u201d Macron wrote on X, adding the captain had his \u201cfull support.\u201d<\/p>\n
France’s assistant coach Guy St\u00e9phan also condemned the remarks on Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn three words, it\u2019s indignant, abject, scandalous,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The Associated Press sent a request for comment to Amarilla on Monday through her social media accounts.<\/p>\n
Before Saturday\u2019s match, former Paraguay goalkeeper Jos\u00e9 Luis Chilavert referred to France as \u201ca squad from Africa.\u201d Philippe Diallo, president of the FFF, said Chilavert \u201cwas once a great goalkeeper\u201d who had now \u201cfallen into disgrace.\u201d<\/p>\n
See more of AP\u2019s World Cup coverage here<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"France star Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 on Monday condemned a Paraguayan senator over racist remarks she made following Paraguay\u2019s loss…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47019,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[36,5,27578,31407,6951,31406,144,29,26089,31408,138,22,27],"class_list":["post-47018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-france","tag-emmanuel-macron","tag-france","tag-guy-stephan","tag-jose-luis-chilavert","tag-marina-ferrari","tag-mbappe-paraguay-racism-world-cup","tag-package-100373-mc-complete-state-national","tag-package-100502-member-choice-sports-option","tag-paraguay","tag-philippe-diallo","tag-product-30598-ap-national-news-report-a-wire","tag-product-30599-ap-sports-news-s-wire-only","tag-product-42059-world-cup-text"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}