Copa América 2021, Finalissima 2022, World Cup 2022, Copa América 2024: for three years, Argentina has swept the international stage. Enough to allow Lionel Messi to complete a list of achievements that, in the national team, was previously limited to a title at the U20 World Cup in 2005 and an Olympic gold medal in 2008. But these successes have also highlighted other players, whose behavior has caused controversy.
Emiliano Martinez, whose specialty is flirting with the limits of the rules to destabilize opposing penalty takers, is the perfect example. The players of the French team remember it. The Blues who were also the target of a heinous skid by Enzo Fernandez in recent days. To celebrate the continental consecration of the Albiceleste, the midfielder found nothing better than to film himself launching a racist chant targeting the Tricolores.
Lionel Messi takes a beating
An attitude that Pierre Ménès firmly condemns.
“Is Argentina a country of racists? I’ve never been there so I don’t know. What I do know is that it’s a generation of little shits.”says the former Canal+ consultant in his column Facing Pierrotbroadcast on YouTube. And for him, even if Lionel Messi does not appear in the images, the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner is also to blame in this affair.
“Between (Emiliano) Martinez, the goalkeeper whose reputation is well established, (Enzo) Fernandez, (Leandro) Paredes and players like that, they are prototypes of little shits and sometimes we come across a generation like thathe continues. And if anyone expects Lionel Messi to step up to the plate for that, they don’t know Lionel Messi well, who doesn’t give a damn about anything except himself and his family.”
Outraged by the images and lyrics of this racist chant, the French Football Federation contacted FIFA and filed a complaint for racially offensive and discriminatory remarks. An approach that has no chance of leading to a sanction, according to Pierre Ménès: “We shouldn’t dream, this complaint won’t go very far. A fine, a slap on the wrist, maybe a spanking. If we wait for something to be taken away from them, we’re dreaming.”
